Burnham on Crouch, Pause, Engage

On an extremely warm sunday afternoon in late summer the Burnham and Rochford under 14 served up a fabulous feast of three mini games of Rugby with both teams having depleted squads (9-12 in personnel so we played 10 on 11 x3, with ourselves having a player advantage in the first and Burnham in the following two)

Burnham v Rochford 100 5-35 (tries -Monkey x2,Luke x2,Danny, Conor x5 Conversions)
Scrums 0-5(4 won from a Burnham in)
Line Out 1-0(Burham throw)

With a player advantage R100 made some wonderful rugby full of Carries, Passes , Rucks and Mauls and some crisp passing that underlined some of the excellent hard work the boys have put in training, infact I remember playing Burnham last February which had the most turn overs I had seen, we only lost one Maul which led to their try in the corner. The most satisfying Scrum 5-0 victory followed on from the training on Wednesday and the compact team work looked smooth and efficient.

Danny scored an early try on his debut and as with all the players they never sagged or dropped of in their effort throughout, a very satisfying performance , with Conor having 100% success rate with conversions 5 out of 5. Monkey and Luke reward for a brace of tries was to join Burnham in the second game.

Burnham v Rochford100 12-17 (Ties-Luke,Max, Conor one of two Conversions)
Scrum 3-2(we won 2 of our 4 scrums)

In my personal opinion I believed this to be perhaps the best performance with a man down , the game became a thunderous tackling game not to dissimilar to our game with Burnham last year , Luke smashed his way through the defence for their second (12-0)but there was two passages of play that will live very long in the memory, linked together, from 12-0 down and looking down on another set of attacks were Burnham seemed camped on our 5 yard line, when again the push came and although Burnham pushed over we held the ball up with bodies committed to the defence, I counted four of our players matted around the ball when the ref blew and a smiling Darcie underneath everything. We managed to run the ball away from the danger area and had gained 30 yards with a slice of luck gaining a second scrum. I was so delighted to see a couple of our players talk simultaneously to a team mate about what they wanted ( fabulous , fabulous communication) in the next phase their requests were granted as Nick made a decisive interception on the ball and with R100 making four slick passes the ball made its way to Max who enacted Chariots of Fire(sorry used that line before) to score the most beautiful team try . With a man down and two tries down it was delight to watch our children show their mettle and remind us that they will soon be men, so much maturity on display everyone for the cause......marvellous rugby.

Burnham v Rochford 100 14-14 (Tries Max,Danny, conversion Conor 2/2)
Scrums 2-3 (we nicked one of their ins)

In fairness to both sides I didn't see one of the boys flag or other than red cheeks look shattered, although I'm sure they were and not to dissimilar to the last game they boys came from behind to get something that there performance deserved. Unlike the previous two games where the play appeared in a definitive half of the pitch this game was marvellously condensed in the middle for long periods with some superb last ditch tackling on both sides. I think it is fair to say that all the players played to a very high level today and each and everyone of the the lads can hold their head high in line with their team and personal performance and pats on the back, generous words and well done have and will be given, but an extra word to the Man of the day goes to Aaron who gave three very very top draw performances today, he has upped his game in training and gave such a team performance today that was enjoyable to watch in his support play, in the Mauls,runs and tackles. Without doubt the hardest decision as all 12 boys were heroes and can take pride in such a performance