Matlock U14s 34 pts Ashfield U14s 12 pts

Matlock U14s 34 pts Ashfield U14s 12 pts

A Double Whammy.- Excellent Performance and Result.

This was a most pleasing morning and well worth the early kick off to allow everyone space to play and train on the meadows.
Arriving at 9.15 the meadows was still shrouded in an ethereal mist with the posts and railway shimmering somewhere between the light and half light.
The grass was particularly cold to the touch of bare feet ( what sort of idiot arrives on such a morning in flip-flops) but the forecast was for things to Brighten up.

A year ago Matlock travelled to Ashfield and were given a lesson in aggression, contact and committment. I always felt that it was the most important game of last season as we did learn and take it in to our other games. The question was how had the two teams developed since then. Ashfield with 6 county players and an NLD representative would surely be looking to hand out a new lesson.

As the forecast predicted by kick off time the sun had burnt through and it was perfect conditions in which to play and watch rugby. Ashfield were asked to kick to Matlock and immediately Matlock showed that they were going to meet fire with fire but who would burn fiercest and longest. The earliest exchanges were of Matlock showing their ability to play as a unit rucking and driving to keep winning the ball. Ashfield were showing signs of their obvious power and size advantage but somehow couldn’t put enough together as a team with individual bullocking runs eventually fizzling out as Matlock’s defence responded well to the threat. So the first five minutes was a matter of thrust and counter thrust with Matlock winning a good deal of ball and looking to move it wide but some early wild passing was bringing their attacks to a halt.

One major difference for Matlock over the last couple of weeks was the return of Burns who roared throughout the match making telling runs deep into the Ashfield defence. The first of these came when he received the ball via the back line and scorched down the wing into the clear to place the ball down in the corner. However there was too much sleep still in his eyes as it was the 5 metre line and not the try line over which he placed the ball…DOH! From the scrum Ashfield cleared their lines with a strong boot up the touchline. Matlock forwards won the lineout and the ball was moved out to the right wing with some intricate passing between Simpson and Hunt creating an overlap. However the mysterious handling not only beat the defence it also beat the forward momentum and a scrum ensued which was won by Matlock and the ball passed to the left where Burns sped round the defence to this time make it over the try line and near the posts for a try converted by Clarke. This put some steam into the Ashfield engine as they had come to steam roll Matlock. For the next 5 minutes they did as Matlock relaxed a little didn’t step up and reduce space and time and suffered lost ground consequently. This was most evident when Ashfield ran a penalty in their forwards, who actually ran incorrectly across the pitch but it worked because Matlock stood and watched waiting for someone else to do their work. Despite some good efforts by the smaller backs to shunt the runners off the rails they had been left short handed by their own engine room who, too late, arrived at the crash site over the Matlock line as Ashfield equalled the score.

Matlock forwards responded well after a couple of reminders were passed their way and for the rest of the game kept their concentration and effort levels high. They were solid in the scrums and more than competent in the loose. Strong runs from Garratt, Hamilton-Cody in particular were keeping pressure in the Ashfield territory. The excellent defence by Braund and Buswell allied to Clarke ,Wragg and Doyle were keeping the pressure up. Eventually Matlock forced themselves to within 5 metres and a disallowed try led to a penalty which Wright took the responsibility to take quickly and drive determinedly over the line near the posts making the conversion easy for Clarke. Matlock continued to be on top though Ashfield were always dangerous with strong runners in the forwards. Matlock though had learned from last years lesson, done their homework and moved up a grade or two. They were more than holding their own in every department apart from when they forgot to not take the ball into a maul situation against a strong pack. Alongside Burn’s darting runs and the odd foray from Wragg and Doyle the next try by Matlock was a joy as Hartley’s dummy switch fooled most of the crowd never mind the Ashfield defence as he made the 20 metres untouched to score as Ashfield were still tackling the player who hadn’t got the ball. The conversion missed gave Matlock a well deserved 19 – 7 half time score.

The second half continued in very much the same way as the first with Matlock on top but Ashfield capable of scoring at any time. In fact they were the first to score in the second half when a couple of matlock defenders failed to deal with a kick and let Ashfield get the loose ball and sprint over to bring the scores to within 7 points. However this sparked Matlcok into a response and on three more occaissions in quick succession Burns showed his class by out pacing the defence and putting Matlock into a strong winning position of 34 pts to 12.

In summary – it was great to see the forwards improvement and excellent to have the return of one of our top scorers as it encourages the forwards to keep working hard as they see the fruits of their labour. Well done forwards you did your jobs well and truly, just remember to concentrate all the time and do the basics right. Backs – a good job done improving all the time especially in defence. Ideally we need to add some confidence and go forward when we are attacking which needs to come from more sources than Josh.