"It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up" - Vince Lombardi
If you apply Vince Lombardi's measure of courage then the 11 Old Y's players certainly demonstrated theirs on Sunday against a bigger and much stronger Old Salts team. Their mixture of 11's and 12's seemd slightly more 12's than 11's despite reassurances from their coaching staff.
A great turn out this week saw the following 11 players representing the club,
A great turn out this week saw the following 11 players representing the club,
Toby Good
Josh Talliss
Jimmy Robertson
Ollie Lonie
Dan Hayes
Jake Lowe
Chris Harrison
Ollie Dickson
Josh Hull
Lewis Zimmerman
Ethan Hart
Congratulations to Lewis on his first ever rugby match and a mention to both Jimmy and Chris for their second.
This week the boys were always going to be up against it but I think they almost held their own in the first half. We saw quite a lot of the ball and surprised Salts a few times in winning the ball in a number of contact situations. It does demonstrate that when playing a bigger team speed to the contact will often mean that you win the ball. After an initial try by Salts, Old Y's replied with two tries of their own. The boys speed and great defence looked to provide the platform for an improbable victory. Salts however regathered and with their size and strength started to run straight and hard at their generally smaller opposition and also utilise their size advantage in the rucks and mauls. The end of the first half saw us down 5 tries to 2.
As the second half progressed we found it more and more difficult to cope with Salts size and their team grew in confidence. We weren't able to match their physicality and struggled with playing a 20 minute half. The game against Claverdon was made up of 4 x 10 minute quarters whereas this was the first time that the boys had played 2 x 20 minute halves. Having to continually defend against a bigger team and take the hits in the rucks and mauls was too much and Salts put 6 tries on us without reply in the second half.
Ultimately the score was inconsequential. It was a good game and the Old Y's supporters could really see the effort put in by the players.What did impress was that the lads kept going, kept getting up after being knocked over trying to make the tackle and most importantly, kept their heads up throughout the game. Maybe if we had passed a little more and run them around throughout the game then the score would have been closer. Again it didn't matter. It was a hard lessen but worthwhile and one that every team needs to go through.
We have training this week and again lots to work on so look forward to seeing you all there on Sunday at 10.30am
John
