U15's at home to Canvey

A fantastic day for rugby saw Woodham U15’s host Canvey Island Rugby Club. Canvey come with a firm reputation of being a physically dominant side with a devastating pack of forwards in the scrum. Woodham have a new pack of forwards who have been training hard on the scrum machine for the last few weeks and it paid off today. Not only did they hold their own, but they won numerous scrums with a tight co-ordinated shove. Even when pushed back, they managed to successfully counter hook to win the ball. This is not a position that Canvey are used to and their coaches openly commented on the quality of our pack. To quote them, “usually we have to go to non-competitive scrums by half time as they get injured but your boys can push”. Not one scrum collapsed which is an achievement in itself.

Woodham applied good crash ball to gain territory and found themselves in the Canvey 22 for 60% of the time, unfortunately Canvey were quick on the break and ran in 3 good tries. Woodham mounted a valiant comeback in the second half with Joe McClure running in 2 tries, James Skelt successfully converting 1 for the extra 2 points and George Cox being cruelly held up to be denied the 3rd. Some might suggest that a review by the TMO may have offered an alternative perspective, but the ref decided against a video review on the big screen.??

Ben Savin debuted as scrum half having been given just 5 minutes notice and he stepped up to the challenge. He quickly found his feet and mastered the art of retrieving the ball from a retreating scrum to great effect.

Alfie Ruff managed to rip the ball from some of the biggest Canvey players and came close to scoring with his unpredictable running lines. A dominant run by Dan Williams was also a close opportunity having shrugged off 2 challenges, he was eventually shoved into touch.

The final score does not reflect how dominant Woodham became in the latter stages of the game and this squad is showing excellent signs of progression. This was a whole team effort that will set this team up for some exciting future matches.