Paviors RFC

A hastily arranged final 15 a side match of the season led the U14’s on a trip to play in South Derbyshire and a game against a team we haven’t played for several years. Our hosts were Melbourne RFC and we were very impressed with their new sportsground and clubhouse shared with football, cricket and tennis clubs.

We took a squad of 19 players and had no last minute drop out although 1 player did arrive a bit late after taking a detour to Melton Mowbray RFC. Greg was impressed that he was at the ground on time only to realise they had travelled in the wrong direction and were meant to be at a different club starting with “Mel”. Monty arrived in time to come on after the 1st quarter if the match. There are lots of places in the world that start with “New” so I hope they’ve applied for the right Visa for their upcoming life-changing move. New Delhi or New Guinea may be a bit different to New Zealand.

The first half was a tight affair with Melbourne scoring the first try of the game, but Paviors fought back and made ground with some good running and support play getting us into good attacking position. From a scrum in the attacking 22, Harry charged left from the back, got tackled, but momentum and a stretch got the ball over the line.

Melbourne scored another try, this time from quite close range but Paviors again came back and good combinations with backs and forwards got us back up the pitch. Coming up to half time the forwards had a powerful drive up the left and Reed broke on the blind side. The crowd thought he’d been tackled into touch but somehow spun infield to get the ball down for a 2nd try.

Both teams had converted 2 tries, Owen getting our one, and so when the half time whistle went the scores were tied at 12-12. The players knew that they had to improve ball retention in rucks, especially getting the ball placed quickly, as Melbourne were getting away with not releasing at the tackle. They also wanted to spin the ball out wide more quickly.

The ball retention at rucks didn’t improve massively but our work at the rucks was really good and we turned the ball over on multiple occasions with Nick, Monty and Harry all getting their hands on the ball quickly to good effect. The boys also managed to get the ball out to Elijah on the left wing who stepped in and then out to go round the full back and used his speed to score a great try.

Soon after his try, Elijah showed his speed and defensive strength when Melbourne’s impressive fullback looked to have broken away down our right. Elijah stretched his legs, got his speed up and chased him down to make a great tackle. This was one of many well made tackles that the team made during the game. The lads showed good body positions and drove well leading to plenty of dominant tackles and putting the opposition under lots of pressure.

We kept up the pressure and then had a long distance try from another turnover with Nick breaking through the middle and there was no one quick enough to catch him. This is the first big break he’s has since his long term injury, so it was great to see him getting his fitness back.

A well placed kick to the right hand corner by Benny was chased up well by at least 3 players. The full back could have touched the ball down as the ball just went over the try line but instead he decided to run the ball out. This was a decision he will look back on as he was tackled and driven into touch close to the try line. From the ensuing lineout the boys set up a maul and Morgan secured the ball at the back. When the maul was halted, he peeled off to the right and made it over the line for another well worked try.

To finish things after lots more pressure Paviors won a scrum close to the try line and Nick, now playing at Nr 8, picked up and attacked to the left of the scrum, going over for our 4th try on the 2nd half. With conversions from Cole and Owen and no tries conceded in the second half, the score was 36-12 in Paviors favour and the cheer at the final whistle from the lads showed how pleased they were with the win.

With 5 of the tries being scored by the low numbers you would think it was a forward dominated game, but the backs supported, tackled, passed and chased to make it a brilliant team performance. It was a great way to finish the season.

Next week we are going to play in our first ever 7s tournament.