Paviors RFC

We were on the road this week with a short trip to Southwell and took a squad of 21 players. After the warm-up, referee briefing and stud checks both teams lined up on the halfway line and held a very respectful minutes silence for Queen Elizabeth II.

We played up hill in the first half and the game started poorly for us with Southwell scoring almost immediately from the kick-off, but the Paviors team turned this around straight away with a try of their own with Nick scoring and birthday boy Owen kicking the conversion.

The game settled down slightly and Paviors managed to put into practise some of the plans that we have been recently working on. At this stage we looked like a very proficient team, applying lots of pressure and sucking defenders in. At the right moment the ball was passed out to the backs on the right who used the space created by the forwards. The ball was passed out wide, Owen joined the line and Cole used his pace to score in the corner after a well timed pass.

The pressure continued and when we were in the Southwell half we always looked dangerous, but they defended strongly. We put in some great tackles and after a drive from Oli that gave us good go-forward ball, Nick made another charge through to score a 2nd try that was again converted.

The wind was against us in the first half which made getting out of our 22 difficult at times but those of us sheltered on the far side of this pitch didn’t realise this so were confused why we were trying to run the ball out. When the pressure grew from Southwell, Paviors lost their focus slightly and Southwell were able to score another try.

As the half wore on Southwell looked to have the chance to bring the scores really close when they had a clear overlap on their right. The second last player was only a couple of metres out and looked sure to score but Cole managed to stop him and hold him up just short of the line and then drive him back with help of covering defenders. It was a key moment in the match as half time came shortly after.

The second half was uphill but with the wind. It started with a long kick off that bounced into touch and put pressure immediately on the Southwell team. As in the first half, when we played as a team, we looked dangerous and after a penalty close to the line, Harry steamed through the defence to score, again converted by Owen.

We did give the ball away a few times, generally from risky passes that didn’t go to hand. This was generally when we didn’t look where or to whom we were passing, and Southwell had some players who were quickly onto the ball and were able to score again. Their full back had a great game, especially when we gave him ball in space.

Paviors final try came from more great work to get us up the pitch and from a driving Maul, Reed was able to touch down. Again, this was converted to give us what felt like a comfortable lead.

Towards the end and after quite a few positional changes due to injuries and player rotation, the Paviors lads lost their concentration a bit and another episode of sloppy handing led to turnover ball out wide for Southwell who scored under the posts and converted which led to the final whistle. Final score 24 – 33 was a good victory whilst giving the coaches plenty to work on.

There were too many good performances to name them all, but special mentions need to go to the following: Alfie for having a good debut in the front row, Warren for being all over the place, Josh for leading well as Captain for the day, Nick for some (very) hard tackling and runs with the ball, Cole for his try saving tackling and finally birthday boy Owen for his conversions (and general solid play at the back).