First Win of Year for U8’s

Defensive frailties had cost us against Earlsdon and Moseley and a change of tactics was definitely required. Other teams seemed to be employing the spear-headed rush defence to close down and pressurise the opposition before they could get running. So with about 15 minutes of practise, and much heated debate about the ifs and the buts, we took to the field with a new style of play. To be fair it didn’t take much adjustment for the team as they’ve been defying the coaches and trying to play this way all year!!

So to the first game where it was agreed that both sides would field their more experienced teams. Redditch looked to have some strong runners who made us work hard in the opening minutes, but the new defence was definitely helping us close them down early. Jobe opened the scoring for Camps with a nice try before Joe extended the lead with a typically long arcing run. The second half was very evenly balanced with Ben going over and Joe claiming his second to see us hang on for a well-earned 4 – 3 win.

The second game was a really close affair with 1 try a piece (partly due to only playing 5 minutes each way in all games). The Camp Hill defence was particularly impressive and it needed to be as Redditch mounted a series of strong attacks and more than once got to their seventh tag without crossing our line. Alex ran well to score the single home try which was enough to seal the draw and reward a really good team effort.

In the third game Camp Hill again took on Redditch’s more experienced team and again the result was a 4 – 3 victory to Camps. Some direct running from Jack and then Joe saw us go into the break all square before we pulled away in the second half. Ben and Jobe scored a couple of well worked tries to see us safely home.

The last game of the day saw the up and coming Camp Hill team step up and put in one of their best performances to date. Benjamin opened the scoring with a clinical short range finish after some excellent approach play from the team. This was followed by a great solo effort from Toby who twinkle toed his way up the touch and scored in the corner. In the second half it was Cian’s turn to impress with an individual effort of his own swiftly followed by another try from Alex who looked dangerous in attack throughout. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as Redditch were awarded a very dubious last gasp try, by the same referee who blew for fulltime when it was only half time (doh!), to win the contest 4 – 5.

Overall a good mornings work with some notable performances:

Dylan showed how far he’s come this season with some surging runs up the field and the best pass of the day to create a score.

Joe ran well as ever in attack and hi-scored with three tries in his two games.

Ben backed up a good attacking performance with some truly committed defence particularly chasing back almost the length of the pitch to make a last ditch tag and stop a certain try.

And the defensive ‘experiment’ was a success as we’re beginning to see a real intensity in closing down the opposition and getting those tags!

One slight concern was the appearance of a Welsh training top on a member of the team who shall remain nameless – hopefully she (oops! sorry Abbie) will see the error of her ways after next Saturdays match at Twickers (though probably not!).

Results
Camp Hill 4 – 3 Redditch (Try scorers: Joe 2, Ben 1, Jobe 1)
Camp Hill 1 – 1 Redditch (Try scorers: Alex 1)
Camp Hill 4 – 3 Redditch (Try scorers: Jack 1, Joe 1, Ben 1, Jobe 1)
Camp Hill 4 – 5 Redditch (Try scorers: Benjamin 1, Toby 1, Cian 1, Alex 1)

Squad
Joe, Toby, Dan, Abbie, Alex, Tyler, Owen, Ben, Jobe, Will, Niall, Cian, Dylan, Jack, Connor, Benjamin

Old Silhillians at home next week - they’re normally a strong outfit so it’d be a another good scalp to take! Let’s try and arrive on time please particularly those with the kit bags…:)

See you there,
Ali