L'boro U15 v Leicester Forest (away)

Thanks to Dave Martin for today's match report:

Loughborough U-15s expected a tough match against Leicester Forest and they knew they had to get stuck in right from the start. Within the first minute George Baum made a storming run up the touchline, he was well into the opposition 22" and then disaster, poor George was struck down by "white line fever". George saw the line but he clearly also started thinking about doing an Ash Splash. In preparing for his dive for glory, he managed to fling the ball over his own head and into the trees. Sadly the moment was lost....but not for long(!), George was back and nobody was going to stop him as he finished off a super team try that really put Loughborough on the front foot and left Leicester Forest East reeling.

Straight from the restart there was some great inter-play between forwards and backs resulting in Dan Horsley putting Henry Wells away from 30 metres. A brilliant conversion by Dan took the score to 12-0. Ten minutes later it was the turn of another George (Suffolk this time) who got the ball in his own 22" and took off as if he was on a jet propelled bicycle, ten seconds later he was dotting down behind the posts and it was 19-0.

Soon after, Jack Evans (who was outstanding all day, particularly in defence) took the ball up the right hand touchline, stayed on his feet and when the support arrived, Marshall Casey rumbled over in true front row fashion. Dan converted from another difficult angle and it was 26-0. Then Lester Hodgkinson headed off on one of his mazy runs, George Martin was up in support and he stepped the full back to take it up to 33-0 with 25 minutes gone. Dan converted, sending yet another ball out of the ground and into a neighbouring back garden, while this was funny, we were now running out of balls.

Loughborough thought they had scored again and the ref had awarded the try but the Loughborough coach, Dave Timmis, had been watching a lot of rugby on TV so he decided he would be the video ref without using a video camera. He consulted himself and agreed that a Loughborough player had taken an opposition player out off-the-ball. The try was switched by the ref to a penalty against Loughborough. David congratulated himself on a great decision. Joking aside, it was excellent sportsmanship! The last try before half time was scored by Lester, yet again finishing off some wonderful handling between backs and forwards and Dan's conversion took it to 40-0.

A few changes at half-time, but there was still no let up for the opposition. Luke Flynn caught the second half kick off and set off for the try line from 60 yards out, he weaved, he stepped, he shimmied and he duly dived over for a great individual score. Discipline started to slip as Leicester Forest East showed a lot of pride in not giving up despite the daunting scoreline. At this point Eddie Brown came on for a welcome return, he waved to his fans in the crowd and then got quickly into the action, entering the back line at pace and creating room for Joe Wakley to whizz through under the posts. An opposition player got ten minutes on the naughty step for diving on top of Joe as he scored. Loughborough did well not to get involved.

The last 20 minutes were a tight affair. Chances were limited but Ollie Carruthers made a great break from inside his own half before getting snagged by the cover defence who were determined not to let Loughborough score again. The Loughborough defence also held fast and there was some excellent counter-rucking (by Ben Wallis and Marshall Casey in particular) that helped keep Forest at bay. The last play of the game was a Loughborough lineout on the Loughborough line, unfortunately an untidy tap allowed Leicester Forest East to pile through and dive over for a well deserved try. Despite the late score, this was clearly a very strong performance from the Loughborough boys, lots of good teamwork and quality passing in extremely muddy conditions. The communication was terrific and there were a lot of players showing strong leadership skills. The confidence and team spirit that is always evident in training is now translating into behaviours on the pitch on match day.

Well done to everybody, you supported and encouraged each other really well. Nobody in the squad took a backward step.