A warm summers morning in Boughton, and the U15’s were up for a game. Having gifted the Merlins a point in the final seconds of their last encounter with no year 10’s, the Panthers felt confident that being able to field 2 U15’s should give them a win their style of play deserved.

The Panthers started brightly keeping their opponents penned inside their own 30m line for all but two plays of the first 20 minutes with that pressure being converted into a well worked try out wide, which was well converted.

The Merlins players reacted poorly to the score which carried on into the next Panthers set as each tackle found the Panther players receiving more than a shoulder. The Coaching team had warned the player of the Merlins ruck tactics before the match, as it was well documented from their previous matches, but the tactics were clearly working.

The Panthers usual control deserted them as their focus drifted from the game to the Merlins players who were guilty of such tricks. The Merlins seized upon the distraction with two line breaks for scores that in truth were gifted, rather than played for, leaving the Merlins ahead at the break.

A reality check of a team talk at half time with the players again warned about retaliation and told to focus on building pressure and sets. As with many of the teams this year, the Merlins attack wasn’t sophisticated and was more about one pass rugby.

The Panthers started the second half as brightly as the first, defending well and getting possession high up the field. But with only five minutes gone in the second half one of the Panthers again reacted to the Merlins mucking around at the ruck, shoving the Merlins player away and was sin binned for retaliation. As always in these situation, it the person retaliating, not the instigator that is punished, a lesson well learned for the green and black.

With a man down and a penalty in their favour, the Merlins were able to spin the ball out wide and score on the natural overlap.
The Panthers to their credit, kept on battling, pushing their opposition back on a number of occasions before conceding a second try to the overlap, even though the Panthers sin binned player had been waiting to be signalled back on for the last three plays.

A further 5 minutes of play the game had to be called short and an away parent ushered from the side-line.

So another lesson for the young Panthers, but how different should it have been?

Well the Merlins were only in the red zone four times in the whole game, indeed only spent 5 minutes of the game in the Panthers half. But they converted all four chances, albeit 2 of those against 12 players.

The Panthers conversely were in the red zone 7 times, but only managed to convert once, which was not a result of good defending, but was down to decision making and errors.

So plenty to work on for these young players, but plenty of positives to take from the game. The intensity of the defending and teamwork were terrific and if they can add that to their ability to play expansive attacking rugby, they’ll be flying.

Next up a trip to Elmbridge.