Fine win for U14s in season opener

The first game of the season, and the sun was shining for us!

Glossop, almost the edge of the known world for some! And the parking is definitely past there.

We brought a squad of 15 which included 2 new players and a welcome return from Pierce so although we were confident we didn't want to be too cocky (as we were last year first game against Ducky).

The collective of Marple and Glossop wanted to play 3 x15 minutes to aid their development. So kick off and the first spoils to Sam within 2 minutes, exposing the weakness in the home defence.
From the restart kick again we took the game to them, with some positive good supported drives and 2nd & 3rd phase ball with all our boys in support. We should have taken of advantage of the situation but we gave away a silly penalty. Glossop & Marple didn't utilise the opportunity and we nicked the ball from their line out. Olly, nippy as ever saw the opportunity to spin the ball wide through Michael (in his new number 10 position) out to Sam who destroyed the defence and scored. Each and every time the back line ran in support and made sure the try was safe before stopping the chase.

Our rucking and support ball was good but we needed to get the ball out of the back quicker and Glossop started to take the advantage. We then became complacent and allowed them to score twice in succession. Our heads were dipping and after a few stern motivational words were given in the break, the boys started the second session with determination to bounce back.

And they did with a vengeance. Baggers took a great catch and drove the ball back into the approaching pack, again with all the forwards in support! The ball was recycled and down the line through fast hands. Glossop had now seen Sam as the target man and were trying to close him down with more pressure. Sam booted the ball to try a chip and run, unlucky to see it bounce into touch.

We were dominating the line out and George was disrupting all of the home team’s throws. From one of these again the ball was driven in by Cameron and Aquib forming the start of a promising rolling maul!
We had become a little predictable with our centres coming back into the pack, so a quiet word was had and the game plan started to work! Running round them. The motivational chat obviously worked as the lads started working together and talking to each other in the backs and forwards.

The second quarter saw a slower pace and more controlled rugby. We dominated this period and should have put 3 or 4 chances to bed.
From a penalty given on the opposition 22 Aquib took the ball with a charge and the whole pack in tow only to be robbed by being held up! (There was almost an exact duplicate situation about 10 minutes later).

Our forwards started to become dominant – Adam with his usual terrier style - once he got the ball he never gave up. Jake on his debut played a blinder in the scrum and forced their scrum to make some crucial errors, even though almost on every scrum the ball was fed into the opposition second row - a point Olly made to the ref!

Cameron played number 8 and out of his regular role was scrum leader and would fit into this position well, although he says there is too much running involved at 8.

Some simple fluid rugby, with the ball flowing through Michael to Josh to Sam saw another try!

We played almost all of the game in the opposition half except for the time they snatched a loose ball and ran it the length of the pitch for a third try.

Our restart saw the boys charging in and taking control of the game again. We dominated the play and as per our game plan nipped the ball wide to Jack H who caught a difficult pass and ran through several Glossop players to plant the ball over the line for a great debut try - the first of many!

Glossop were not a push over and if it weren't for the hard tackling and determined chasing from Matt, Pierce, Josh (Killer), Erik, Conor and Sam we would have conceded more points.

The final quarter saw Glossop kick the restart. George took the catch (almost) and knocked on. From the scrum and the ball was won and recycled several times then taken out to the wing with Erik rucking over and picking the ball from the hands of the Glossop players to score his first try in a Moor shirt (although he scored last year when guesting for Marple against Moor).
From the restart George caught the ball cleanly this time and made a very determined drive through the middle of their pack. Glossop couldn't get him down, the ball was in his arms like a vice, the forwards were all there in support and wouldn't let Glossop have any ball.
Our 15 had been on the pitch for the whole match while Glossop had played 7 or 8 subs with fresh legs! So all credit to us, more so as in the last 10 minutes Sam and Pierce took the ball from the half way line, dodging loads of tackles and scored.
Erik, Ollie and Matt enjoyed a (fully clothed) swim in the bath after the match.

Final score 15-48. Great win.

Mano macho. Erik Ruby