Trojans U15's Warriors v Tottonians 30th October 2016

Trojans Warriors 0 Tottonians 77

We have experienced something of a bizarre holiday period with two freak results in two weeks. I don't think we should be fooled by either result. In defence of the Warriors, they had several regular players missing and the line-up was deliberately experimental. They were also up against a massively improved Totts squad. On the positive side, being a friendly, all the players were given at least half a game. This gave me a chance to look at how all the new players were progressing.

The boys began the game well, believing they could match Totts, and in fact in the early stages they did exactly that. They re-cycled the ball well and Ben kicked intelligently. It took a penalty after 7 minutes for Totts to take the lead. Then the Totts backs swung into action and started to dominate the match. Poor defensive positioning and tackling in the Warriors backs gifted their opposition too much space and the first try was conceded. The Warriors were still in the game with Taylor making a try saving tackle and Matthew put his body on the line to stop another Totts attack. Bradley was covering their kicks at full-back. The forwards were holding their own, competing well in the scrums and in fact had a more polished line-out than their opposition. Unfortunately the Totts backs were getting the upper hand and scored another four tries by half time. Centres Adam and Taylor made runs at the Totts defence but their tackling was far superior. Tom had a promising start on the wing and made some good tackles, one of which left him with a knock to the head so he was withdrawn from the game as a precaution.

Dara got the backs better organised in the second half and they were putting more pressure on their dangerous opponents, but it wasn't enough. Totts attacked from all parts of the field and again poor tackling and defensive organisation generally allowed them to score another 6 tries. The boys were defintely tiring towards the end, but kept their heads up and still managed to launch attacks of their own. The highlight of the second half was a couple of moments of brilliance from Blaize on the wing. First he made an awesome cover tackle to prevent a try. Soon after he chased a kick from Brad, gathered the ball and sprinted past two defenders. It looked like a try was on until he was stopped by a high tackle by their last defender deep in the Totts half. On the down side, two players went down with shoulder injuries, first Gabriel then Adam. Both were taken off. Adam was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken shoulder. Fortunately Gabriel fared better. Man of the match was Matthew, playing his first match at flanker. He did a lot of work seemed at home in the scrum and made a number of good tackles. He definitely enjoyed being in the thick of the action.

In summary, a heavy loss and largely a game to forget and to move on from. Well done to the new boys, including Will Bethel, Jay and Will Thomas. Let's hope Adam makes a rapid recovery.