Rising Damp

On a cold miserably damp and misty day in North East London our U14 team managed to loose a very winnable game in atrocious conditions, despite the disappointment however there were some very strong positives in a game we just could not get hold of. The huge amount of scrums and low yard game does indicate the scrappiness of the game and as opposed to previous weeks my notes showed gains of 5 &10 yards rather than 15 & 20.

We posted our second highest amount of tackles and our second lowest yard gain, the game was in general played 20 yards either side of the half way line. I can't complain about odd referring as I thought today's match official was terrific in the circumstances, he tried to keep the flow of the game and was excellent in keeping the advantage going dispite many mistakes. Our luck was however very short in a very solid first half ,they scored two tries in a period of the first half where Nathan was off the pitch both tries also had a slice of luck and scored where we couldn't cover the flank, (all tries down our left)

During the first half we seemed OK in our press , ruck and maul but just lacked that little bit of momentum, Our opponents were astonishingly narrow but we just didn't capitalise on our potential,we carried the ball in and eventually lost it.

Nevertheless half time the boys came in spoke well ,looked positive and where chomping on the bit to return to the action being 14-0 down, six horrific minutes ,seven missed tackles later into the second half the game was gone were we conceded two very very soft 80 yard run tries,

Once again our lads were staring defeat in the face in a game which could've been but was not to be. In fairness we plugged on and dug in.

There were some very good positives to take from the game, Darcie who was a very worthy man of the match gave a fabulous performance not just because he seemed all over the pitch today, producing a brilliant try saving tackle, was part of the hold up preventing a try and showed awareness beyond his tender years with an astonishing recovery but his support and team play today was impressive.

Danny puts in an incredible amount of work in each week but hit a very big high mark in the volume of tackles he undertook this week, even by his standards he appeared time and time again making a tackle at a critical phase.

Nathan last ditch tackle , with George in support was at the end defensive rugby of the highest order and a thoroughly enjoyable spectacle. He has a brave never say die attitude that inspires.
Ethan,Luke ,George,Kyan and Nick can also be mentioned in dispatches.

Full credit to our opponents they capitised on all five circumstances that either didn't go our way or that horrible six minutes where we switched off.

Final Score: Chingford 31-0 Rochford

Scrums. 7-12(all to head)
Line outs. 1-4
Penalties. 4-4

Tackles
Danny 20%
Matt. 10%
Luke. 10%
Nick. 10%

Yards
1 half 165
2half. 80