U10’s Match Report

U10s

The X's travelled to Bicton College to face the mighty Withycombe for a sprightly 10.00 ko in some rare but welcomed sunshine.

One might have assumed the brisk 10 min walk down to the playing fields would have been enough to shake the sleepy dust out of our eyes but judging by our warm up, in which we couldn't pass wind nor catch a cold, I started to dread a repeat of previous visits to Bicton's sandy well groomed pitch, where Withy, probably the best outfit we have faced in the last two seasons, have left us well beaten in past endeavours.

Our dopey brand of slop came bounding into the first quarter with Honiton making handling errors England would be proud of, and our tackling technique of shirt grabbing with two fingers proving completely useless.

Our coaches relieved by the whistle for the break quickly gathered everyone in for some "motivational" speeches.

Thankfully we quickly found some improvements. Playing a virtually new team in the second quarter with Withy having an ubundence of players to face our same 8 that finished the first, some of our muchiness started to return.

Our tackling went from zero to hero, in 2 seconds flat. Perhaps they do listen to the ex footballer come assistant rugby coach after all.

The battle for the ball in the middle of the park was even for the remainder of the match, and the Ton found the try line on quite a few occasions. I started to relax, (a bit), as memories of past drubbing's at the hands of Withy looked unlikely now to repeat as we had "done enough" to let Withy know they had a game.

Missing any players from our squad hurts, as we have a squad full of quality and a few more of our quicker stars today would have made a difference, particularly in terms of pace to break their line, and defend against their faster players I'm sure.

George was due to make his matchday debut today only to go and break his arm at school on Friday. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back soon.

One player was omnipresent today, even in the warm up, and made his presence known with some great tackling and ball carrying, earning Ben a well deserved Player of the match this week. ???⭐

Moment of the match came when Harley shut the patio doors in the face of the Withy winger sending ball and man flying off the pitch with aplomb, bringing smiles to the Honiton coaches and fans alike. They may have won the war mate, but not that battle ????

Reggie made his debut today and had a really good game for his first time out. On asking if he enjoyed it today he replied,

"I always thought I would like playing rugby, but I had no idea I would love it this much"

That's my salary paid till the end of the season.

Chris

#UTT