Sun 24 Oct 2021, 11:00
The U14’s travelled to Melton Mowbray for a hastily re-arranged fixture to play a team we hadn’t come across before. With a lot of players away, especially in the backs, we had a squad of 11 forwards and 8 backs so two back row / 2nd row players tried their hand in the centres for the day.
We played up hill with the wind in our faces for the first half against a physical looking team and they played some fast rugby to start off that took us a bit by surprise scoring a try quickly. However, we returned from the restart with a strong break from Nick who sprinted half the pitch to equalize. Both sides had seen the stronger players who needed to be stopped early but we gave them too much space to run into and Melton soon scored a second.
We lost Henry to a nasty injury quite early on (this has been confirmed as a broken collar bone). He is back home with lots of pain killers after a trip to QMC and seems most annoyed by having to miss rugby for a while now. Luckily for us we had 3 scrum halves in the squad, so Ollie D stepped in to fill the gap. Get well soon Henry.
We changed a few players after the first quarter which we were worried may throw our shape, but we held firm for most of the rest of the half until Melton’s big runners broke through and scored a 3rd try near the end. Half time and it was 3-1 to Melton; the lads’ heads were a bit down, but we had the advantage of the slope, wind, and more subs when we went into the second half.
The 3rd quarter was a tight affair with some kicks with the wind pinning Melton back but there was no way through their resilient defence and superior rucking with quite a few balls turned over as they got lower than we did so going into the final quarter the score was still 3 tries to 1.
Things started to change when Ayden made a powerful run to score, and the lads belief rose as Melton started to tire.
A good passing move saw Louie in space and when Benny looped and the ball was passed over their defenders, he was in to tie the scores. The tide was certainly turning.
Another great run from Nick saw us take the lead and to finish things off, Ayden broke through tackles on the right wing to take us 2 tries clear.
The game was well refereed by Melton and played with solid commitment and good spirit. Melton’s team put up a very good fight and with a few more subs they could easily have won the game. They were well drilled and had some very fit players. Nice post-match food and beer and another team we’d love to welcome to Burntstump when we get a chance.
Apart from the injury to Henry it was a good day for the team. The comeback made the hard fought win all the sweeter.
