U12 Championship Match Report

Sunday saw our second set of matches of the U12's Championship against suspected tough opposition - Pinner & Staines RFC. Once again, we were not disappointed as a great morning of Rugby was contested with excelent skills, sportsmanship & teamwork on show from all teams.

The extra preparation the boys received before the match seems to be working as it enabled our boys to start quickly as an injury & Flu hit Harrow team began knocking on the door of Pinner's try line in the first few minutes. This momentum was carried through to the second game regardless of team combination which gives us options across nearly all positions.

As usual the Harrow scrum was under pressure from the larger packs from both our oppositions, however this combative unit stepped up again & great credit to the boys for taking on board the coaching lessons, drills & techniques practiced over the last few weeks. Luke Wall playing at scrum half made some good decisions (run or pass) when attacking from the base of a scrum or ruck & was well supported by his pack, even when the scrum was in reverse & when the option to pass was taken he began to deliver the ball quicker & more cleanly to our other Luke (Seagon) our fly half who in turn attacked the space in front of him which created pressure on the defence as we moved the ball confidently through our hands to our wingers creating scoring opportunities. Great kicking from both Lukes and Thomas particularly saw us apply pressure and escape from our own 22. Luke S put in a perfect performance from the tee and Thomas put in a fantastic clearance kick pretty much the length of the pitch and into touch.

In defence we saw the boys contesting possession by going forward with good line speed which suffocated the opposition (pressure) as we stopped them from creating & playing. If we dominate the contact area (tackle line) we can create turnover ball & win back possession. Our mid-field demonstrated this many times today with a memorable & technical head on tackle with Jolly stopping & flattening Pinner's dangerous runner (who was nearly 3 times his size) & collectively the whole team are improving in this area & not just relying on the usual suspects.

The execution of our new penalty moves which the boys learnt last week & tried for the first time in a game situation today, was excellent. What we saw from the opposition was confusion (so it worked) as they didn't know which way we were going & who was receiving the ball & this led to tries being scored. We'll continue to work on these & more - well done.

Players of the week - Whole team: Great effort, desire & have a go attitude, demonstrating good technique & execution..

The Results from Sunday's matches & all the other Championship games are on the attached pdf files together with the league positions after round 2 below:

www.rosslynpark.co.uk/wp-content/docs/Middlesex-U12B-Table-20141207.pdf
http://www.rosslynpark.co.uk/wp-content/docs/Middlesex-U12B-Results-20141207.pdf

The Results from Sunday's great day out in the sunshine at Pinner.

Game 1:
Pinner 5 Harrow 35
Tries : Luke W, Cieran x2, Sho, Mykel – converted by Luke S

Game 2:
Staines 0 Harrow 28
Tries : Cieran, Luke W, Coalite, Elliot – converted by Luke S

A BIG THANK YOU to all the players who turned up & played, even with coughs, colds & sniffles......... your contribution is building a great team spirit.

Thanks to Jo for arranging all to be in attendance & for Colin for refereeing the matches & to Richard & Antonio who gave the team talks & feedback on performances .

Please remember Rugby's core values - Respect, Discipline, Sportsmanship, Enjoyment, Teamwork