Paviors RFC

The U14’s went into the match against Corsairs with a number of experienced players being rested for the game as part of our squad rotation system, and then 3 of these were lent to Corsairs who were short in the forwards. We then had a late change in the backs due to illness and finally a very late cry off in the forwards leaving us a bit light of experience. So, our team had a challenge on their hands.

We started well with a counter ruck by Oli winning the ball back and good hands leading to a try out wide by Cole and it looked like our passing training on Wednesday was paying off. However, after a good 10 minutes, Corsairs confidence began to grow as we gave them too much room to run into because our defensive line was not up quickly enough, and we missed a number of tackles giving Corsairs space to score.

One of the lessons from the day was play to the whistle as there were a few times the lads thought the ball was knocked on and stopped momentarily giving the opposition gaps to exploit and one situation on the line leading to a try when someone just needed to drop on the ball but they waited and Corsairs touched down.

The main turning point of the game came when Josh, who was having a fantastic game, made a superb covering tackle on Owen who has haring down the wing for Corsairs. On landing it was obvious that Josh was in a lot of pain and a bad shoulder injury led to him being taken to QMC. He has had surgery on a broken upper arm that thankfully didn’t need pinning and we all wish him a very speedy recovery.

The lads’ heads understandably went down a little for the next third of the game with another experienced player out, leaving our pack with a lot of newer players. They didn’t give up but were noticeably a bit slower to the tackles and break downs. Saying that we scored tries through a break from Benny at fly half and then a well taken pick and go down the side of a ruck by Danny as Corsairs continued to find space to score themselves.

With another try from missed tackles Corsairs were leading into the last third by two tries but a long range run from Danny got us back into the game. With better passing we could have had another few tries including one out wide from a good supporting run by Cole. Brody was also unlucky not to score from an interception but another break by Corsairs put them 2 up again with about 5 minutes left. A break by our backs led to Fin having a long run in to score and a maul turnover and cheeky side-step by Oli to go round Harry in defence put us in good positions to pull the game back but time was just against us.

This was not a day for the lads to leave feeling beaten as the result could easily have been in our favour. The team-mates playing against them were a big help to Corsairs and the loss of Josh was a sad knock to the team. With the age old issues of defensive line speed, tackling and ball handling to work on the coaches have a lot to try and improve but on another day the result could easily have been in our favour.

A huge thank you to Harry, Sam and Owen for playing for Corsairs. The game may not have gone ahead without them. They were all fully committed which was great to see and they came out on the winning side. It was a sign of the Sportsmanship and Teamwork within our squad that we are all very proud of. It was also great to see Giles (ex of Paviors, now of Corsairs purely due to location) still thriving with his rugby. So, in reality we lost to 4 Pavs + Corsairs today.