Wanstead vs. Rochford Under 10s, 22nd January 2012

The ball was passed to Charlie who took the ball in for a well set up maul, Ben and Jamie pushed well up the field until the ball came back to Louis who passed out to Henry who took the ball forward well until he was tackled. From the resulting ruck Wanstead won the ball and if not for a good tackle from Dom they would have scored. We had good possession but failed to make the most of it, when getting caught with the ball instead of holding on and going down we seem to think we have to throw it away... HOLD ON when tackled. We won a line-out but lost it due to not competing in it, this set Wanstead off who passed well and ran in for the first try of the game. From the restart we had a good passing move of our own making good ground up the pitch only to throw a slightly forward pass and from the resulting scrum Wanstead ran in another try. Wanstead had their tails up now and put us under a lot of pressure and if not for some good tackles from Louis, Frazer and Henry they would have started to run riot with us.

Eventually the pressure told on us and they ran in another try. Encouragingly we did not let our heads go down a battle on well. Dom went on a great run and as so often was held on the Wanstead line unable to ground the ball over the try line. We kept the pressure on and won a scrum near the Wanstead line, we won it well and Louis quickly whipped the ball out to Frazer who ran over for our first try of the game. As half time was approaching Louis put in a great tackle that put the ball loose, Henry picked up and went on a great run only to lose it near the Wanstead line and have them run the length of the pitch to close the half with a try.

The second half started with Frazer immediately going in and ripping the ball from the Wanstead player, this resulted in releasing Dom to go on another good run at the heart of the Wanstead defence, who managed to hold firm and prevent him from breaking through. At this point the game was very to and throw, with both teams defending well. Henry made a good darting break only to yet again get held up on the line. Wanstead came back at us but were held up by some good defending from Lol, Haidyn and Jamie, with good support from Declan. A ruck formed and Henry made a good pick up and was away, speeding through the Wanstead line to score a try. From the restart they came back at us but Charlie put pay to that with a great tackle, the pressure was still on but we held strong on the line with Ben, Dom and Frazer putting up good resistance but eventually they found a way through and scored a try. From the restart the ball was passed to Ben who, with good support from Charlie crashed into the Wanstead line, who eventually brought them to the ground. The game was nearing the end and Wanstead managed to run in three quick tries.