Sun 16 Jan 2022, 12:00
On a sunny morning at The Stump, Paviors U14’s took on an Ilkeston team who had been swelled by 3 or 4 new players since we last played them at the start of the season. We were slightly depleted with a few players pulling out late on so only had 4 subs across the team but had a strong squad so were hopeful of a good result.
The first half started well with us retaining possession and making our way up the pitch. This pressure led to a lineout about 10m out from which Harry drove over the line to get us on the scoresheet first. The try was score out wide and we were not able to convert.
The game began to turn after this positive start because of multiple penalties that we gave away. The penalties themselves weren’t the main issue although the number of them did seem to frustrate the referee. It was the speed with which Ilkeston’s players took the penalties that put us on the back foot as we didn’t react quickly enough and often gave away a second penalty advantage for tackling the player when we weren’t 10m back.
The turn of tide led to Ilkeston having a penalty kick close to the posts which was missed but they kept the pressure on with further quick tap and go penalties and ended up scoring two tries and converting one of them.
Paviors had some good spells of play and scored one further try in the first half when the ball was shipped out wide to Ben who had space to use his pace and get around the last defenders to run the ball in from his own half. This try was scored under the posts and Owen was able to score the team’s first conversion.
Paviors lost a player just before half time due to a yellow card for a trip which created some extra space that Ilkeston utilised, and the half finished 12-12. The lads knew at half time where the areas for improvement were needed, these being giving away and / or reacting to penalties and tackles and went out to try and improve these areas.
The penalty count did improve a bit, but some slack tackling let us down again. The frustrations were that plenty of tackles were started but then the tackler didn’t hold on and bring the ball carrier to ground but instead let go giving Ilkeston lots of Go Forward ball. These missed tackles led to a couple of opportunities that Ilkeston took well.
One try came from a 5m penalty that we gave away for being offside at a ruck, and only Will was off the line quickly to make a tackle. Another was created by a 40m run through multiple attempted tackles that eventually brought the player down but led to great front foot ball and further missed tackles let them in to score.
Paviors did increase the pressure after we went 2 tries behind. A well taken quick restart when Ilkeston weren’t ready almost led to a great break but for an unfortunate knock on in an attempt to the regather the ball. However, we kept up the momentum with a strong scrum and we took some quick penalties of our own to gain ground, but we failed to convert these opportunities. Also, right near the end when the game was almost over Benny covered back to take a kick well and ran back down a wide blindside where he saw space and almost made it to the line.
At the final whistle the final score was 12-24
With the possession we had we probably should have scored more points and the lads on the side-line were frustrated as they could see where the space was. We could have made some better decisions to maintain possession in areas close to their try line, and we could have used our speedy wide players more often.
They say you learn more from a defeat than a win and there were plenty of lessons today for the lads to learn from. They will improve far more by playing the game and through feedback from their peers than they will from coaches telling them how do to things. All we can ask is that they take on board feedback that their team-mates give them and learn lessons from positive things that they and the opposition do well.
Morgan enjoyed his time as Captain today and he led the team confidently. He summed up the main reason we were beaten today at the end of the game when he said that they wanted it more. You could tell from the noise on the pitch and in the changing rooms afterwards that they were up for the game and felt it was a hard won win, and we were a but more passive, at least up until the last 5 minutes.
To finish with our positives from today: Another try from a line out, our first conversion ever, our scrum was on top and when we played quickly and supported we were dangerous. Next week we are away at Mansfield in a re-arranged fixture.
