Keynsham U18s v St Bernadettes/ Broad Plain U18s

Well we finally started our season!!

What a great number of players to kick off the new season 23 boys fit and raring to go!! Some a bit more than others it has to be said. A lenient start to the season with regard to “lateness” fines (all blamed on faulty Sat Nav’s!!). However, this will not be the case from now on!! We believe the going rate for the club fines is 50p per minute, Coach Tony “Tick Tock” Morris will once again be in charge of Fine collecting.

So once the names had been ticked off and the boys were nicely settled in to their changing room, nicely situated opposite the urinals! a novel experience for the majority of us coaches, SELECTION!! Our selection usual consisted of hopefully being able to count to 15!! This done and the Starting XV announced we marched the half mile down to the pitch, further delay to the kick off occurred due to an unfortunate injury to a boy in the preceding game.

We finally kicked off and St Bernadettes/Broadplain (StBBP) started strongly and for the first 10 mins put us under a lot of pressure, however, we finally settled down and started to take control of the game, especially in the set pieces. Our ball retention was good and with some strong rucking we managed our fair share of turnovers. After some great work from the pack Alex (Laner or Soggy) bull dozed over for a try, converted by Matthew.

We then went through a period of dominating the game, great interplay by forwards and backs, good ball retention and support play. The pressure certainly told on StBBP and Matthew went over for 2 tries in fairly quick succession, converting one. Unfortunately, just before half time we lost Jacob Dent with a head injury, whilst waiting for the Paramedics to do their obs (Medical Term) the referee decided to draw the half to a close. A great performance by the whole team leaving us in a commanding position at half time winning 19 – 0.

We made a few changes in the second half including a totally new Front Row, our scrums continued to be strong but did miss the option of Jacob in the Line Outs. The game stayed very tight for 10 minutes but then followed a small altercation which rapidly expanded into some handbags!!

Following a strong warning from the referee, and stirring instructions from our head coach, the game continued. However, this was the turning point in the game, notwithstanding the opposition playing very close to the offside line we let the disruption get to us!!! We stopped playing through our phases, lost some composure, failed to retain the ball and allowed ourselves to be pulled into playing their game.

Taking nothing away from StBPB they upped the intensity of their game and strung together some good passages of play and finally crossed our line for a try. Then a series of turnovers due to poor ball retention from Keynsham allowed them to score two further tries fortunately they only managed to convert one – Score 19-17 to KRFC.

With a few minutes left we managed to secure some possession in the opposition half, but again some sloppy handling allowed StBBP to break away and after some valiant tackling we managed to stop them before they scored again! They continued to pressurise our line fiercely but it was matched with fiercer KRFC defence, as they tried for one final push we managed to rip the ball and touch down for a 22m drop out! What followed was reminiscent of the great counter attacking French teams of the 80’s, Matthew sprinting to the 22 ala Serge Blanco and letting fly with a monstrous drop out, roared on by the shouts of “Allez Mathieu” (even without Limia being there) he chased down his kick and with a deft kick on managed to touch down for a try!!! His Third of the game (Drinks all round on John on Thursday).

The final whistle blew after our failed conversion attempt with Keynsham being victorious 24-17!!

There were major contributions from many individuals but the overriding positive from the game was that all the boys pulled together and played as a team, it was truly a great SQUAD performance.

It was great to see both age groups join together as ONE TEAM and share in the success, this had been evident early on in the game when Charlie unselfishly decided to share his breakfast with everyone!
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Lessons Learnt
Keep our Composure
Play our Phases
Don’t get dragged into the opposition’s game
 
Lesson to be learnt from STBBP – Never under estimate the French!!!!
 
One other – DON’T FORGET YOUR Nr 1’s !!!
Yes we decided to be lenient with the boys for the first game but as coaches we MUST set an example and unfortunately we cannot show any mercy for whatever reason – So in the words of Sir Alan Sugar (well nearly) JAMES your FINED (see Tony)
 
See you all Thursday 7.00PM don’t be late – TICK TOCK will be waiting!!!