Tupton U10’s produced a memorable performance in the Memorial match against a fiery Matlock team. A season of hard graft and bone-crunching commitment came together as the season climaxed on a cold May morning; Tupton fulfilling the potential they had promised in previous matches by running out 4 -3 victors, in what must rank as the team performance of the season.
Birthday boy Jacob blew out Matlock’s candles with an exemplary display of tackling and running with the ball; from the start he attacked the opposition, making gains whenever he had the ball.
The front three of Jude, Sam and Max gelled wonderfully well, and the understanding between forwards and Caleb as scrum half was apparent. Early forays by Jake showed the grit and aggression that are his hallmark, and he was unlucky not to score after 2 minutes.
The forwards drove Matlock onto the back foot; Caleb spun it out to Dom, who rolled out of tackles like an electric eel. Dom passed it out to JJ, who put his head down and charged into the heart of Matlock’s defence.
Despite dominating the first quarter, Tupton suffered a sucker punch in the last play of the quarter as One of Matlock’s burly front row burst through and scored the first try of the match. 0 – 1.
From the restart Tupton came back with a vengeance. Max and Jude combined well to release Sam to break away with an impressive turn of speed. Sam linked with JJ to produce the move of the match so far. Indeed the passing from all the team was precise and flowing.
Matlock played their share of attractive rugby and tackled tenaciously: sometimes taking man and ball, sometimes just taking man.
On 2 minutes Max burst through; it took three Matlock players to bring him down, Jude managed to rip the ball free from the resulting maul and ran through the defence to score a great try and restore parity. 1 – 1.
Now Tupton began to shine with free flowing rugby. Jake burrowed his way into the mauls, ripping the ball free like a greedy squirrel claiming his acorn; Caleb nipped at the heels of his forwards like a sheepdog rounding up his flock and JJ and Jacob skipped through the Matlock back line like a couple of impalas on the savannah.
Dom ended the second quarter with his first try of the season to put Tupton into the lead for the first time. This was the try that the team deserved as the ball passed through every player’s hands before Dom pounced mercilessly to score. 2 – 1.
Tupton must have been still sucking their oranges as Matlock started the third quarter, as speedy winger raced through to score immediately from the restart. 2 – 2.
The rest of the quarter was tight, aggressive and tense. The crowd got behind the home team, but they couldn’t penetrate Matlock’s sold defence. Indeed Matlock struck again on the stroke of the end of the quarter with another well taken breakaway try. 2 – 3.
But the best was yet to come. Jack came on and straight away Tupton began the final quarter with a forwards drive through the heart of Matlock, ending with desperate and illegal defence as Jude was held up on the tryline by players lying on the floor. From the resulting penalty Max did what he does best, bulldozing his way over the tryline to score. 3 – 3.
All through the game Tupton’s scrum had dominated, and they continued to do so in the final few minutes. The try of the game was fittingly the winning try for Tupton. Again the ball fizzed through the back line from another solid scrum, and Dom celebrated his second score of the morning, finishing off a brilliant team try. 4 – 3.
Jake’s reaction at the final whistle epitomised what the win meant to Tupton as he hoofed the ball to the heavens with a joyous yelp. A magnificent game to finish a magnificent season. Bring on next season!
Men of the Match: Max, Sam, Jude, Caleb, Dom, JJ, Jake, Jacob, Jack.