Match report

14th November 2010

Redditch U15s 12 - Ledbury U15s 27

It is a long way to Redditch, but after the confusion of the Lydney fixture, it was good to have a game.

A car full of sleepy players was rectified by playing "The Ace of Spades" very loudly, and co-incidentally, Ledbury started strongly after a minute silence was observed for Remembrance Sunday.

Redditch had a wide range of shapes and sizes. A huge second row and big props suggested that their tactics might be predictable, and we were right. They enjoyed mauling, but had little ambition outside of the fly half. This was going to be a question of Ledbury Forwards providing good ball for the backs to exploit a back line opposition.

Sam Dudley took the first scrum against the head and good ground was made to the opposition 22. A knock on by Redditch gave a scrum to Ledbury, the ball was picked up from No 8 by Will Dzioba who powered through tackles, twisted and turned to reach the line for the first try.

Shortly after, the ball was released into the backs, Steve Evans entered the line, drew the last man and put Aaron James in the clear. He ran in under the posts.

The ledbury forwards were rucking well and securing ball. Redditch struggled to hold onto ball, and a third try came about when Ali Martin found himself in space after turnover ball, broke though a tackle and scored under the posts. Steve Evans converted.

Redditch then woke up a bit. They secured a lot of possession, and camped in the Ledbury 22 for most of the remaining half. Ledbury looked to be tiring, and it was good defence that kept the opposition out. Redditch were starting to spoil the rucks by good counter rucking, but were penalised for offside on the half way line. I tap penalty to Will Dziobawho repeated his first charge, breaking tackles and powering over the line.

Half time, 22 - 0.

From the kick off, the Redditch scrum half caught the ball, offloaded to the No 8 who evaded several half tackles beofre being grounded by a fantastic tackle from Matt Hand. The ball was recycled and an overlap resulted, giving Redditch their opening score. A typical start to the second half from the Ledbury outfit!

The game became far more even. Redditch improved their ball retention and Ledbury became more hesitant. Ledbury regained some phased possession, spinning the ball down the line to release Matthew Badham in space who dived over to give Ledbury a comfortable margin.

Redditch went over for a consolation score, and Ledbury finished the match on top, with Matt Hand going over the line to score, only for the referee to disallow, suggesting that he was held up. Before that , Matthew Badham had scored, but the final pass had been judged to have been forward.

This was a solid performance from the LEdbury team, although the victory should have been more comfortable. Players stopped working well as a team in the second half,partly due to fitness levels and partly due to an expectation that the opposition would continue to make mistakes.

It is great to be putting wins together, and to be scoring tries in all areas of the pitch. Well done to the squad.

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