U7s play two matches v Toc H

Team : Matthew Casey, Owen Gallagher, Billy Hayward, Joel Ireland, Rowan McNally, Elliot Payne, Max Prior, Shane Hogan.

Toc H arrived with 19 U7s players! They picked an A & B team and we played
4 x 10mins, with each Toc H team playing 2 x 10mins. As most of the Heaton Moor team are new to rugby it took them a little while to get into the game. In the first 10 mins we did not tag very well and also when we had the ball we ran off the pitch and therefore handed the ball straight back to Toc H. At the end of the first quarter the score was 4-0 to Toc H. At the break we decided to have a competition to see who was going to be the top tackler in the next quarter. Well what a difference! All the players were desperate to tackle and this put Toc H under real pressure. Joel, Billy and Rowan were particulary impressive at tackling. During this quarter we also ran with the ball with much more confidence, Billy and Owen made some great runs, Billy scored 2 tries and Owen 1. The score for this quarter was 4-3 to Toc H, so overall the score for the first game was 8-3 to Toc H. A really good improvement from the first quarter. In the second match we continued to improve, the tackling was solid although some boys were getting cold hands so we continually substituted so that parents could try & warm them up! Elliot made some great runs & was unlucky not to score a try as he was not on his feet. As it was our second game some of the boys were getting tired but they kept trying hard. Elliot, Owen, Max and Matthew made some great tackles. Toc H were leading throughout this game although it was a close fought contest. The final score was 4-4 with tries from Billy(2) and Joel & Matthew. When our team had the ball the passing was very accurate and the catching and general ball handling was fantastic - hard to beleive that only two of the had played before. Max was a good organiser on the pitch and he also demonstrated that he had a good pair of hands. Shane has not been down to training for many weeks and initially looked a little lost, but he got more involved as the game progressed. The boys were a credit to Heaton Moor Rugby Club. They listened really well to their coach Alex, and once told at the break what to do then they tried to put them into the game.

The player of the match was difficult to choose as all the boys had made great improvements as the game went on. We decided to give it to Joel as he was the top tackler.