U15 v Highfields

Date:  Thursday 25th February

Venue: Home, KO 2.15

Team:
Cohen
Li M
Li V
Sharpe
Garland
Davis
Ramsey
Main
Cornish
Walsh
Kyriakidis
Atkinson
Pywell
Roberts
Bacon
Morris
Whale
Westmoreland
Sunner
Sorrell
Prutton
Boulton


Result: Win 43 - 5

Match Report: 

In keeping with the good-sporting spirit in which the game was played, it must be admitted that the final scoreline really didn’t do justice to the game which our opposition Highfield brought to us on Tuesday. For the first fifteen minutes of play the ball rarely left the central 20 metres of territory, and both teams took an equal share in some hard fought encounters and great individual play. It was a pleasure for the Repton coaching staff to see further improvements in defensive work of our players – in single players tackling and also in a much better teamwork and organisation in the defensive line. Much needed commitment with discipline at the rucks was also starting to pay dividends.

The opening score from Ned Morris was a classic forwards dominated build up, and a clean conversion from Bacon gave us the lead just about half way through the first half. With some tough spells of play but continued good defensive form, Highfields then brought the game right back into us with their opener 10 minutes later, although no conversion left us with a slim 7-5 lead.

In the dying minutes of the first half, B-blocker George Cohen took the advantage having been pushed forward into the centres from his normal full back position and he blitzed through the opposition to run home with a great try to bring the half to a close, and Bacon’s boot again found it’s mark to leave us with a comfortable but not unassailable 14-5 lead at half time.

With niggles from injuries in the front row causing very understandable concerns for the Highfield coach, the scrums went to uncontested as we opened up the second half – as always safety must come first, but it was a shame to see the great scrumming which Repton demonstrated in the first half not able to continue – certainly Monday’s session on the machine paid off!

In a reflection of the first half, the opening score of the second was again a great forwards push in from Morris, although Bacon’s conversion was this time denied by the post.  With uncontested scrums, the opportunity was born for some of our natural forwards players to step in to the back line for a little more running, and Max Pywell showed his all round class in the game with our next score on the board with a great bit of running and stepping to put it down cleanly beneath the posts. B-blocker Tom Sharpe then took up the mantle for the kicking and took a clean strike for a conversion giving to a 26-5 lead.

Highfields were now clearly struggling having not had the benefit of any substitutes to play on, but they certainly didn’t let their heads drop – Repton did keep the pressure on though and it wasn’t long before Joe Sorrell took the ball over the line again although the conversion kick from Sharpe was again denied by the post.

Having had a mainly forwards dominated match, the backs finally got a sniff in the last ten minutes of play with the final two Repton tries coming from blistering runs from Harry ‘Judy’ Garland and Victor ‘Velocity’ Li leaving nothing but space behind them as they did their best impressions of gazelles. Amazingly the post again clanged for a third time in the match as Sharpe’s first conversion didn’t quite squeeze through although he did find the mark with his second. Final score Repton 43, Highfields 5.

All in all, the junior squad had an excellent match – not only through the obvious measure of a very firm win on the scoreboard, but also through some superb work rates and commitments from very many of the individual players and an ever growing sense of working together as a team. Well done boys – more of the same please!

JSM