U13s run 10 tries past Stevenage

Despite the forecast a warm sunny morning met us as we arrived at Stevenage, despite dominating many teams up front this season our backs had never been able to replicate their training form on the pitch in a match. But Brian had got plans!!!! Matthew moved across to hooker releasing Simon to use his pace & strength at centre (like a slightly malnourished Manu Tuilagi!!) with Tommy & Alex swopping positions at Full back & Centre.

With the match approaching we moved to the changing rooms to allow Brian to relay his master plan to the boys. Now our boys aren’t used to the most luxurious changing facilities but the tumbledown sheds of Stevenage were a bit of a shock to the boys; however this just allowed the coaches to reminisce & do the Chess Valley version of the Four Yorkshiremen;
“In my day we just had 4 walls & a roof”
“Roof!! You were soft we never had a roof, just 3 walls & a tin bath in the corner” “Walls!! Luxury, we had to change in the middle of the pitch, exposed to all, with just a watering can as a shower”
“Shower!!......” and so it went on for 10 minutes, until the boys pointed out we had a game to play.

We went out to warm up & run through a few moves; it was then that I realised we might have the upper hand today. Whilst Henry took the boys off to warm up, I went over to meet their coach. As I passed their boys I could hear them whispering to each other “wow, look they do their own warm up, they don’t need coaches!!” The pre-match psychology had started!!

We returned to the changing shed to change into match shirts, the forwards discarded their undershirts, the coaches removed their Jackets & the backs decided it was warm enough to play without a snood & mittens.

With the crowd expectant the match started, Chess Valley received the ball and drove forward, a lovely run from Dan was followed by Chess moving the ball down their backline a couple of times, however it was all a bit tame & half paced, had Brian miscalculated with our inexperienced centre partnership?

It was Tristan the got the ball really rolling, Chess were awarded a penalty on the Stevenage 5 metre line. He was fed the ball and went on one of his typical charging runs straight through their first line of defence, however he was brought down inches short of the line, the forwards rucked over the ball & Matthew L picked it up & fell over the line to score the first try of the day.

This seemed to fire up the Chess backs, from the re start we started to run with more pace, we progressed back up the pitch using both backs and forwards. Stevenage also got some ball, however the Chess defence was strong & they never got too far. Eventually Chess got a penalty on the halfway line, from an unpromising position Henry made a great run, Matthew took up the running passing the ball back to Henry, Henry committed the last defender & off-loaded the ball to Simon who strolled over the line for Chess Valley’s second try of the day.

At this point Tristan succumbed to an injury picked up earlier and was forced off the pitch with a thumb injury. Would Chess miss one of the season’s leading players? Initially the signs looked worrying as Stevenage picked up the ball on their own 22 and their No8 ran the length of the pitch to score brushing aside attempted tackles from the Chess players; the score was 10-5 to Chess but the omens didn’t look good.

However the Chess boys soon allayed my fears, from a Chess scrum the ball was fed down the backline to Simon (or “Tuilagi Lite” as he’s now known), who side stepped the Stevenage player and crossed the line again. Soon after Simon again crossed the line for his hat-trick; the ball was spun down the Chess line leaving Simon to break clear of the defence and score.

More scores followed and Billy started to find his kicking range; Billy scored a converted try following a zig zagging run and Jack completed the first half with a fine try under the posts which Billy converted. Half time and Chess were 34-5 up, Brian came over and said we should try to get our replacements on.........too late they all ready were. The boys had all been on the pitch and we were still controlling the game.

The second half continued where the first half left off; Simon scored his fourth of the day under the posts after Ollie spun the ball out wide from a ruck, Billy converted. Ben scored wide on the left following a long run, breaking free from the Stevenage defence. Then Henry scored a try that would potentially line him up for a pint of Lemonade with a carry & touchdown whilst waving the ball one handed in the air; luckily for him he didn’t drop it, but still a heinous, fineable offence!!! Billy again converted the try, before Henry scored his second sensibly carrying the ball two handed into the corner for another try.

The match was completed with Stevenage scoring a consolation try to make the final score Stevenage 10 Chess Valley 58.

Due to the superb performances there were two man of the match awards, “Tuilagi Lite” was MOM for the backs, whilst Dan got the forwards award. Henry had to leave quickly so his “wing man” was named as Tom, who got the award for unfortunately missing out on touching the ball even once, in a 58-10 victory despite being on the pitch for the entire match. The snatch award was given specifically for the moment towards the end of the game, when Brian recognising that Tom hadn’t touched the ball, moved Tom to the No8 position at the scrum, told Tom to pick the ball up when we’d won the scrum and run with it. What did Tom do......let the scrum half pick the ball up and feed the backs!!!

A great day & a great performance from the entire team.