Under 14s v Hucclecote

A great win with a gritty performance against Hucclecote away from home.

You could say we continue to surprise ourselves this season.

We seem to be developing a brand of rugby that has organically emerged from the boys themselves, with forwards linking up so effectively with the backs. It was all part of the grand coaching plan, of course!

What’s even more surprising is that despite having five players missing from last week’s flowing performance against Winscombe and just 16 players in the squad, we managed to reproduce some of the same style of play against Hucclecote in this Gloucester Cup encounter.

That was no mean feat given that our opponents had comfortably beaten county champions Tetbury in their previous match and only lost two games all last season.

So full credit to the boys who came into the squad for putting in performances that helped us to a hard-earned 19-13 victory. We will need every player in our smaller squad to contribute this year with injuries from Saturday school games and other commitments already meaning plenty of rotation.

It was a nervy start from us with several handling errors giving good field position to Hucclecote, which led to them winning a penalty which they kicked to lead 3-0.

But we fought back and looked a real threat with ball in hand. Then from a scrum at close range, Dom picked up and drove for the line. When he was dragged to ground, the ever present George picked up and touched down. Archie converted for us to lead 7-3.

Our next try was not in the coaching manual. It was a spectacular, goose-stepping run from Archie, who split the defence and raced through to score a wonderful solo try. The conversion hit the post so we led 12-3 with not long to go until half-time.

A crucial moment followed as we tried to protect our lead going into the break. We faced a lineout perilously close to our own tryline. Ben made the catch and set up a maul which we drove up to the 22 and meant we could clear our lines. It was a fantastic effort and so competently done. Take a bow, forwards coaches.

The second half started badly for us with a series of missed tackles as one of their players ran through to score.12-8 to us and for the first time we felt like we could let this slip.

But we struck back with a weaving run from Sam Read who offloaded to Louis yards from their line. Prop Louis then got into a great low body position and powered through defenders to give us what turned out to be the decisive score, backed up with a conversion from Hugo. 19-8 to us.

Another solo effort from one of their quick and dangerous backs made the score 19-13, but we saw out the game with some good defence for a memorable win.

Special mention should go to Sam Read who chased down and tap-tackled one of their backs who had broken through our defence and had a clear run to our line.

To sum up, a good first half playing into a strong breeze that could have brought us more points had we got the rub of the green. And a gritty second half when we tired a bit from only having one sub, compounded by losing Archie to injury.

As for man of the match: Backs Sam Read and Archie did vital work in attack and defence but it’s probably right to give the award to one of the forwards – Ben Clarke. In his first game of the season he was a bit rusty at the start but he grew into the game both in the tight and making rampaging runs.

Will Rich gave a brave display, returning to the pitch after having to leave with a bloody nose.