U14s on top in double header against Oldham and Littleborough

The good people of Oldham were blessed with one of the rare days where the smog and rain had been blown away, replaced with bright warm sunshine.

We travelled to Oldham for a three way fixture, with Littleborough adding the extra opposition, lifted from last weeks splendid performance from all at Glossop.
We had heard good things about both teams, and whilst confident, we only brought the minimum 15 helped by the return of Oliver Reynolds, returning from the wilderness of football!

On arrival we were greeted by a car boot sale on all of the car park and the second team pitch. Cameron's dad (Dave) found a good bargain and the ice cream van!
I feared that we would have to buy all sorts of tat before we could kick off but alas no we could train on the third team pitch.

The format was to play 10 mins each way and as expected we were to play Littleborough first (reminiscent of Barkers Butts) so Oldham could suss each team out? Cynic?? Moi???

Littleborough vs Moor

With only 15 players we moved people to different positions again - most interestingly Jack H starting in second row! No disappointment!

So Littleborough started with a good kick which was caught by Aquib who took the game back to them! First half we had several chances but again we weren't talking to each other and made silly mistakes in the ruck and missed some crucial tackles!
The L’bro team were a good match for us and put us through our paces in the first half. The scrum started a bit wobbly and disjointed because of the move around, and the ref was a little unclear of the new rules of engagements!
But once the nerves were extinguished our pack was powerful and won most of the ball, both ours and theirs, as said Jack in second row was almost a natural and Erik played number 8, again a new position for him and wasn't clear of the role initially but developed as the games went on!

Cameron and George were back in their old front row positions for this week and with the terrier that is Adam our front row was formidable, the back row was Josh and Conor, more from them later!
L’bro had two pacey centres who tested the tackling of Dexter and Matt and after several attempts broke through and scored very much against the run of play.
The ref blew for half time after 6 1/2 min to the dismay of all, with a promise to extend the second half. We coaches had a few pointers on how to tweak the game, mainly get the ball out and let's run round them!

So with our words of encouragement ringing in their ears, Our restart saw more intense tackling from Conor who has soldiered on with sore knees from falling off his bike a few weeks ago. And Killer Josh was an animal on the pitch stopping all movement. Even the plastic bags blowing across the grass stopped for Josh!

So first spoils for Dexter who was in support at the end of a great spell of recycling the ball and ran 1/2 the pitch to bring the scores level.

The kick off back to us and L’bro weren't planning on going quietly, they held us in our half for a bit. A few silly handling mistakes and a couple of forward passes gave both side opportunities, we tried a set play move successfully, stopped on the line.
They hoofed the ball back deep into our territory. This was picked up by Sam to deliver one of his now trademark pitch long romps! Try.
Win 10-5 (no kicks to save time)

Oldham vs Moor

The Oldham players all look like they could of all been twins (or whatever is the multiple number for 15) for their team were all of a similar height, and weight and in those red and white striped shirts if they had purple hair I would have thought Willy Wonka’s umpa lumpas had escaped the chocolate factory! The lack of height or bulk was in no way a distraction from their rugby though, they were in no way a push over!
We dominated the first half. Again the tackles were hard and tough with Michael giving a real crunch to his opposite number 10! But as with L’bro in the first game Oldham kept recycling the ball well from the rucks and kept the pressure on and we let their winger slip through. He was chased all the way back by Dex who brought him down just over the try line!
The Oldham pitch lent itself to our game plan. It was almost as wide as long and Olly kept getting the ball out to Michael to Joel who was desperate for some contact (after a summer of touch rugby and missing last week) he wasn't in the mood for scoring just running straight at one of the opposition.

The last throes of the first half we passed the ball from a crash ball successfully won and Olly nipped the ball to Sam. He took the ball into their waiting pack but deftly (one handed) passed the ball to Conor who was in the perfect support position to score his first try this season!

The scores level at the restart and Oldham brought 4 pairs of fresh legs on. We received the kick with a little bit of fluster and knocked the ball out for a line out. Our height was an advantage and we dominated this area but let Oldham ruck us out a lot of the time.
They almost had a try through a rolling maul but Erik nicked the ball and offloaded it to Sam, who with his usual rugby brain switched on kicked booted it up the pitch, chased it down and on the half volley kicked it again and with the most deft bounce straight into his hands he scored under the posts!

With the clock ticking and our heads well and truly in the game we had started to talk to each other, and use the pitch to the full, we picked up the restart and nipped it through the backs, before each pass the defender was drawn in and we created an overlap with Oliver Reynolds as the last man, to score on his return.

Final score 15-5 Moor win