Match report

MATCH REPORT

27th April 2008

Ledbury U10s Tour

Weston Super Mare

LEDBURY U10s Celebrate End of Season Tour with Resounding Win over Weston Super Mare.

Weston Super Mare 5          Ledbury 115

Summer came early (and briefly!) last Saturday in celebration of the end of season U10s & U9s tour. After a breakfast welcome meeting at the club house, a motley crew (the tour theme was Pirates) of around 100 players, parents and siblings headed for the seaside. The plan was for a fun packed end of season celebration culminating in the last matches on Sunday morning against an unknown Weston Super Mare side.

And so it turned out to be. The weather was perfect, allowing for an afternoon of training on the beach, including touch rugby sessions, an opportunity for some parents to show just how far they have slipped behind their offspring in their rugby skills! An evening bowling session proved a great success and the karaoke later highlighted that Simon Cowell need not include the LRFC on his next talent scouting foray.

But the main reason for being in Weston was to play some rugby and all hoped for a fitting end to a most successful season.  With a large contingent of U10s present it was intended to play 2 games consecutively and then swap. Weston could not quite muster a full two sides and so a rotation of two Ledbury players at a time joined the opposition. After the first two games it was decided to play one extra game, resulting in heavy rotation for the Ledbury side to allow everyone their chance to shine.

Game 1 (RB)              Weston Super Mare 0          Ledbury 45

• Any thought that the previous day’s fun and excesses might diminish the resolve of the Ledbury team to show their best rugby skills soon faded. In fact it soon became obvious that there was a clear divide in levels between the two sides.
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• The Ledbury pack, comprising Hector Forrester, George Watson and Ben Savidge, quickly established their dominance in both the set scrums and loose mauls, tackling well and winning almost all contested balls. This lead to a steady feed of quality ball to the backs resulting in two well run scores for George Wallis-Smith and an excellent first match score out on the wing for Tristan Allison by half time. The dominance in the pack was equally maintained when Owen Haymonds and Myles Burrett-Newland came on as subs at half time.
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• With a comfortable lead it was now a chance for Ledbury to really show off their skills and no one did so better than Penny Green, one of the most fearless tacklers on the pitch as well as scorer of two fine tries. Her second entailed running three quarters of the pitch and never has such a determined expression been seen! Hector Forrester and George Watson were rewarded for their efforts in the engine room with two storming forward tries, one a drive, the other an interception. In fact at one stage the pack drove half the pitch only to be thwarted at the last by a held up ball. Not to be outdone the backs closed off the game completely with a copy book passing session down the line through Dan Smith and Toby Cotton out to Max Davis on the wing, who clinched his own first try of the season. Shortly before the final whistle Hugh Smith also made a dash to the line and wrapped things up with a grand finale score of his own.
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• Great flowing interplay and strong defensive tackling throughout. All a coach could ask for!     

Game 2 (DW)              Weston Super Mare 5          Ledbury 45

Ledbury saved one of their finest performances for the penultimate game of the season. Playing in excellent conditions, Ledbury for once started the game strongly and quickly exerted dominance in the pack, which in an early driving move sucked in defenders before releasing the backs in a flowing move, culminating in  the strong running Sam Prestwich crossing the line in the left corner.

Ledbury took confidence from the first score and never looked back against a spirited, but ultimately outgunned, Weston-Super-Mare side who simply couldn’t match the irresistible mix of power and pace displayed by the tourists.

Sam Prestwich was rewarded moments later for his tireless running and impressive recycling of the pack when he crossed the line for his second try in the corner. The third try was testimony to the coaches’ efforts this season coming directly from “the move”, expertly executed just inside the home teams’ half, and finished off, inevitably, by George Hemingway for his first try of the game.

From the restart, Ledbury stole the ball from the ensuing ruck and quick hands saw the ball reach Rory Bateson who, with three defenders to beat, ran half the length of the pitch to touch down in the right hand corner.

Weston, however, were not finished yet, and demonstrated great resolve in their single try of the game by driving on to the Ledbury line from the restart. This was just rewards for a team who, despite being outclassed, never gave up and ran themselves into the ground in defence.

However, the restart saw the ball shipped directly to Ben Stevens who embarked on the solo try of the match slicing, jinking and sidestepping through the middle of the home defence to score his first try “under the posts”.

Half time brought some relief for Weston, who had conceded five tries to their one in the first half.

The second half saw more of the same from Ledbury who, by now, were well into their stride. (Clearly the expert skills displayed by the mums’ and dads’, in the mixed five aside beach rugby the previous day was having a positive effect).

The away pack carried the ball forward at every opportunity releasing the backs into space with some expert and beautifully timed passing out of the tackle.

Ledbury’s authority was reinforced in the second half with further tries by Ben Stevens and George Humphris, before Sam Prestwich completed his deserved hat-trick just in time for George Hemingway to finish things off in the dying moments of the match with his second try.

The nine tries scored by Ledbury in this match were shared amongst just five players, but they were made possible by the combined team effort with Charlie Samwells, Toby Hiram, Will Butler, Dan Clark (on as sub) and Rhodri Whittaker, with a particularly impressive scything tackle on his opposite number in the first half, all contributing fully to the match.

This was a well crafted and deserved season finale and was a fine tribute to the effort made by the players, coaches and managers throughout the season.

Game 3 (RB)              Weston Super Mare 0          Ledbury 25

The third game enabled Weston to field their strongest side and, while the result was closer, there was no way Ledbury were going to take their foot off the pedal after the first two games.

Interestingly all five scores in this game came from the backs. The first fell to Will Butler who had a thrilling run down the wing. This was closely followed by another wing score from Rory Bateson who ran the length of the pitch to score in the corner, making up for being penalised for jumping out of the tackle on an earlier run. There was inspired link up between the forwards and backs with George Hemingway making an uncharacteristic pass out to Will Butler for his second of the game.

Sam Prestwich was once more stalwart in defence, putting in some crunching tackles but also grabbing the opportunity of scoring himself. Once again Penny Green tackled relentlessly and Hugh Smith pulled off a neat ankle tap tackle just when it seemed his opponent was through.

The second half became an exercise in damage limitation for Weston who defended hard and only conceded one try, this time falling to Toby Hiram. But they never looked threatening enough on the counter and the Ledbury defence kept the door closed throughout.   

In conclusion, a grand end to a grand weekend leaving the squad on a perfect high note. Let’s just hope that all the expertise and technique painstakingly instilled by the coaches through the season is not forgotten over the summer months!

A big thank you to all the players, coaches, sponsors, parents, helpers, and the support of the club in making 07-08 such a success for the Under 10s!

Try Scorers:

Sam Prestwich (4)

Penny Green (2)

Rory Bateson (2)

Will Butler (2)

George Hemingway (2)

Ben Stevens (2)

George Wallis Smith (2)

Tristan Allison

Max Davis

Hector Forrester

Toby Hiram

George Humphris

Hugh Smith

George Watson