The whole team pulls together

This week the U9’s were hosted by Stanford on what was a bitterly cold Sunday morning. Woodham fielded 10 players, and thanks to Stanford lending Woodham 2 players, we managed to get 2 games of six a side.

Team 1 was Archie, Ashley, Ben, Jake and Morgan (with Keaton and Dan making up the 6th Player for the 2 matches from Stanford). Team 2 was Harvey, Jacques, Joshua, Ross and Toby (with George and Georgia making up the 6th player from Stanford).

Team 1 started well and were quite evenly matched against the Stanford team. Tries were answered quickly by both teams, and the quality of rugby was excellent from both sides. Tackling was strong, passing was accurate and communications was good. In the last few minutes of the game Woodham started to bunch around the ball rather than hold their space, but both teams were level 3 – 3 at half time.

The second half saw more of the same. Both teams defending well, with Woodham hitting the ball carrier again and again not giving ground away. An excellent effort in the centre of the field from Archie, Jake, Ashley and Ben.

The half saw an excellent effort from Keaton who pushed through almost the whole pitch, and at one point looked like he had run out of steam, to crash over and score. Woodham had slightly more of the play in the second half and came out victors 4 – 6 at the final whistle. Tries from Archie (x2), Ashley, Ben (x2) and Keaton.

With Team 2, it was obvious that we had not played together for a while as the play was a little frantic and tackles made sporadically. Half time gave the coaches a chance to talk to the players about pushing up together in defence and taking more care of our own ball. This didn’t seem to help, a great deal of effect and despite two long solo efforts one each from Ross and Joshua, the game finished SWF 2, Stanford 7.

After a short break the teams swapped over. Team one started well again and the match was again very close. For this game the Woodham boys were joined by Dan, who held his own in the tackle. Excellent play again in the defence with Captain Archie leading by example, closely followed by the rest of the team. The score at half time had Stanford with the slight edge 5 -4.

The second half saw a good effort from Woodham trying to level the score and take the lead. However Stanford seemed to be stronger for the majority of the match although Woodham again fought hard in defence. Archie pushed over for a solo try in the last 20 seconds of the match but Woodham were to find Stanford too strong and they scored again to take the match 9 – 7. Tries from Archie (x2), Ashley (x2), Ben, Jake and Morgan.

In the second game team 2 lined up with Georgia replacing George from Stanford. Prettier maybe but Georgia didn't look to be as solid as George that had joined us from Stanford in the first game. However, our players had begun to push hard in defence and looked much more organised at the break down. Joshua was tackling players at will and supported by tackles from Harvey, Toby and the rest of the team we began forcing them to make mistakes. Turn over ball worked well for Harvey who scored two and Ross who got four. Joshua managed a hat trick and in the end Woodham ran away winning the game 9 tries to 6.

All in all an excellent morning of rugby in cold conditions with good skill shown by both teams and promise ahead of the Essex festival next week. Thanks to Stanford for hosting us and for the loan of Keaton, Dan, George and Georgia who represented their club with true sportsmanship.