This Sunday the Heaton Moor U12s stepped into the tigers’ den to take on a Sedgley team that we haven’t played before. Sedgley’s results show that they measure up well with other Lancashire teams so it was a good test of our progress.

Moor started the first period in determined fashion. It was great to see intensity from the off. Sedgley showed that they are a tough nut to crack by presenting an organised defence and commitment at the breakdown. Moor initially matched that with Tye, Charlie S, Fraser and Isaac fighting fire with fire. Antoon also chipped in with a couple of cheeky jackals.

Finally Josh took the game by the scruff of the neck and scored with a couple of powerful bursts.

The second period was also a tight affair with tries from Charlie B and Danny providing Moor with the edge. Nick scored with a scamper which culminated with great finish beating a clutch of defenders on the line by staying low and driving over. The highlight came at the end of the quarter with Danny being guided to the touchline, he opted for a kick behind the full back. Not content with that, he chased down his own kick and charged down the full-back’s clearance, grabbed the loose ball and touched down for the score of the day.

In the third quarter Sedgley came back into the game. Caelan scored from distance but Sedgley responded with a run in from half-way after a Moor knock-on (good advantage played sir!) and another mix-up from a scrum. In spite of good work by Josh at the ruck, everyone else stood back providing Sedgely with enough ball to get a foothold in the game.

Moor to their credit finished strongly with a couple of well-worked proving the difference in a tight final quarter. The team reacted well to upright ball-carriers, wrapping them up to pinch possession or force a scrum. At the scrum, our hookers did well to take a few against the head. One highlight of this period was an excellent catch and return for Harrison playing at full-back.

The game finished with Moor 9-3 ahead.

Player of the Day

The area of focus this week was the defensive line. Several players answered the call including Cameron and James. On the whole, our chasing of the re-starts was much better and the line squeezed up (with a bit of encouragement!) to punish lateral running. There was also much less sleeping behind the line. Charlie B was consistently in position to put the squeeze on the opposition and his tackle count was off the chart as a result. The interesting thing was his increased involvement in the defensive effort transferred into his play when we were in possession. As his confidence soared, he produced his best display of the season with ball in hand. Well played big man!

Head Coaches’ Comments

It was a bit of a strange performance this week. The focus of the week was defence so it is worth noting the improvement there in restricting Sedgley to 3 tries over the hour.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that watched the game that 2 of the 3 Sedgley tries came as a result of Moor turn-overs. Whilst credit goes to Sedgley for some excellent spoiling of our possession, the ball was handed over regularly and in every possible way: misplaced passes; lost in contact; knock-ons; lost on the ground due to poor presentation; and a rucking effort that evaporated as the day went on. This really killed any continuity that we built up and most of our scores came as a result of individuals making the most of their power/speed advantages.

Next Sunday’s fixture away to Manchester is our toughest challenge of the season to date. We have had weeks this season when we have had different bits of our game ticking over nicely. This weekend it was defence, last time out (v Burnley) it was the attack. Next Sunday would be a great time to bring it all together!