Sun 24 Sep 2023, 10:15
Moderns U13’s V Paviors U13’s
Just for fun!
A rather dark overcast day for the first game between these two sides for at least 3 years, big thanks to Moderns for providing a fixture following the cancellation of our scheduled game against Shepshed. Playing at the Nottingham Emmanuel School, travel to the ground proved a challenge due to the Robin Hood marathon and subsequent road closures and parking availability, luckily I managed to find a spot nearby and can happily state that on my walk to the pitches I inadvertently won this years Robin Hood marathon in record time!!! The Marshall who told me I couldn’t have my medal is obviously getting it engraved for me.
Warm ups appeared to go well and the mood amongst the players was determined but with a hint of uncertainty about what type of style Moderns would play. The game kicked off and Pavs struggled to let any rhythm of play established, a feature for the remainder of the game, good phases of play would put Moderns under pressure but silly turnovers would allow Moderns to clear their lines. However when we did string some passages together good carrying work by the front row of Craggsy, H and Alex S, backed up by strong work in the tight from Tristan, Alex F and Finn, allowed us to move the ball with some purpose, the new half back pairing of Charlie W and Alfie seemed to gel as they looked to bring Lewis and Max into the game, both carrying with purpose and harrying the Moderns ball carriers when defending.
Due to defensive pressure from both sides much of the game was spent scrummaging (for an old fatboy like me I have no problem with this) due to knock ons, this clearly frustrated some of our dangerous runners in the backs who began to look for work at ruck time to try and snaffle the opposition ball with Evan and Jack both getting good turnover ball allowing them to run into space and release Oscar, Toby and opening try scorer of the game Jenson to make good yards. Charlie T did an excellent job of trying to get the game to flow when he stepped into scrum half from his usual position of wing, whilst his other winger Joe had his best game in a Pavs shirt with some excellent running and strong defending.
For parts of the game we looked a very capable side with good structure in both attack and defence, however little lapses in concentration resulted in dropped passes or turnover ball. This led to some frustration which in turn led to us forcing things and this would often then result in a further mistake. When we did manage to keep ball, go through the phases, and put our dangerous runners into space, we put Moderns under pressure and scored some good tries. Overall a curates egg of a game, with some strong individual performances but we seemed unable to maintain a firm grip of the game as a team/squad and didn’t play our best rugby, however we managed to get the win whilst not being at our best and this is a crucial part of putting a successful season together. Dope of the day would/should have gone to Finn for his penalty for bad language, I can only assume he’s picked that up at school….. However I have to award a collective dope of the day to the whole side for turning theirbacks on Moderns who had a penalty 20 metres from our own try line allowing the Moderns player to take a quick tap and stroll in for the try untouched, but thoroughly deserved.
Next Sunday sees us without a game but training up at Burntstump, let’s make every effort to attend as we look to improve our knowledge and understanding of how we want to play.
Tom “Marathon Runner” Studholme
