Pre-Christmas party mash up.

As our opponents for the day Ashby cancelled, we decided to run a set of training matches to look at how the kids had progressed since October, and what we could improve on, without the spotlight of a competitive away team on us. Please note all tries and tags will not count to the players stats on todays figures as this would add to our “overplaying” status, which we need to avoid for the end of season festivals.
First match, first half saw: Biggs, Bennett, Moore, Kime, Curless, Fisher vs. Causon, Simmons, Dunne, Gamble, Cooper, Middleton and Halka (sub). The match started off with a tough lesson from Causon (1), Simmons (2), Cooper (1) and Middleton (1) all scoring tries to one in reply from Ben10 Moore (1). Tagging was again sparse on one side, with Ben10 Moore (1) being the only “Four-arms” on his side. Tags from Causon (3), Simmons (1), Dunne (4) Gamble (1) and Cooper (5) sealed the first half result, closing the door on any reply.
Second half saw the squads mixed to: Causon, Farrell, Deacon, Gamble, Cooper, Simmons along with Dunne and Middleton as subs, vs. Moore, Curless, Fisher, Chase (Debut), Halka, Biggs, Kime with Bennett and Fisher as subs. Early scoring saw both sides matching tries and an even spread of tagging. Causon (1), Deacon (1), Dunne (1) and Middleton (1) all added to the tally (well done Deacon!). Ben10 Moore had certainly upgraded from the first half and Special K Curless had certainly had his Weetabix as they scored 3 & 4 tries each respectively. A further try from Fisher made their lead unstoppable. Halka performed like his Springbok roots and left the other side in reverse gear by taking 6 tags of his own. Moore (2) Curless (1) Fisher (2) completed the superior tagging game.
Second match (or third half?!) saw teams swap to: Farrell, Dunne, Cooper, Causon, Simmons, Deacon, with Gamble and Middleton by now frozen to the side-lines as subs, versus Curless, Fisher, Bennett, Halka, Biggs, Moore and Kime. The scoreline shows a one-sided match of 4-0, but the frantic tagging of the second squad and low overall score shows this was not as one-sided as it may appear. Dunne (1), Cooper (1) and Simmons (2) all took the four tries for squad 1. Tags for this squad were from Farrell (3) - on fire performance, Cooper (I swear he had a teleport to get round the field so fast), Causon (1) and Simmons (2). In reply Special K provided a roving road-block in defence taking (1) tag, Bennett (1), Halka again took (4) tags and seemed to be everywhere, supported by Ben10 Moore (4) and Kime (1).
Fourth half match saw Cooper, Causon, Simmons, Middleton, Dunne, Gamble with Deacon as sub playing Kime, Bennett, Halka, Curless, Chase, Fisher with Ben10 Moore and Biggs in reserve. Cooper set the pace for taggers up and down the country, taking (15) tags himself. Simmons added a respectable (6) along with Causon (1), Middleton (1) and Dunne (2). Squad 2 had to come up with a strong reply and made superb support plays and early off-load passes a-plenty. Their tagging was of a high quality too, with Kime (4) coming in to his own, Bennett (2), Halka (5), Curless (1), Fisher (1) and Ben10 Moore taking (2) as a late sub. But Cooper had done the damage with his free running tagging, and whilst Bennett managed an excellent solo run try (1), squad 2 could not find a further reply to the 6 tries added to the scoreboard by Cooper (1), Causon (1), Simmons (3) and Dunne (1).

Well done and thank you to all who took part today. We hope you gained experience from today’s sessions, and we hope to be able to tailor training sessions more closely to individual players requirements going forwards.