U16s - A Fishmongers Tale

Wath 41 v Old Brodleians 29

A somewhat depleted U16s travelled to Wath with 12 willing volunteers who forgot to take one step backwards, to tackle a hefty Wath side who put 50 points on us in the same fixture last season. With 4 injuries, including our last two players of the year and three others unavailable, we were making phone calls to draft in the ghosts of seasons past, Dougy answering the call and acquitting himself well. I can't believe the only reason he gave up was to work in a fishmongers on training night ..... come on Dougy would you rather play rugby with your mates in the fresh air or stink of fish? Anyway we gave him a good dowsing with Lynx with the special fish neutraliser and on he went!

Anyway, the game .... after a few decent tackles from Ed, Will and Swiff, we found ourselves camped in coffing corner with our line taking a battering. We tackled hard and low though and looked organised, swarming to keep our line intact and forcing a knock on. Rhys made a good touch finder and from mid field we used our backs, fullback Daryl entering the line, hitting the gap nicely and swerving the last defender to put us ahead. Wath came back and got on the score sheet from close range positions after more tackles from Ed, Daryl and Underpants. There were runs from Swiff, Sam and Midge and a break away from Will before Underpants got his first of three on the day to take us to half time 19 - 10 down, but very much competing and in the game.

We absorbed more pressure at the start of the second half, with the herds of wildebeest running off the break downs it wasn't a great day to be a fly half with a 2XS shirt size but Ben hung on stoically to quite a few tree trunks. Underpants got his second before Tom took a pass at pace from a ruck on a wider arc trajectory, crossing the gain line and spinning and twisting with the last defender to make the touch down. Tom is in his third season, scoring your first try is a memorable moment especially when having to work hard over 30 yards to get it. Lets hope your new found pace and confidence leads to many more this season. We finished strongly with Underpants claiming a captains hat trick to close the gap to 7 points but Wath had the last word making the final score 41 - 29.

Thank you to Wath who played in the true spirit of game by loaning us 3 players each half, who all put in a good shift for us to even the numbers up.

Man of the Match was Ed - lots of tackles and taking on the beefy lads in attack.