The U14 B team played Old Emanuel at home on 7th February. But their oppo. was not the OE B team, it was their only team, in effect a mix of A & B players, so it was always likely to be tough and so it proved.

We lost the toss and played against a very strong wind in the first half. We kicked off and allowed them to run the ball back at us, with several tackles missed, but we then gained some possession and went through the phases. They then won the ball and attacked, stopped only by a great try saving tackle by Andrew Dearden in the corner. We then found ourselves stuck in our 22, unable to kick the ball any distance to clear our lines, with several clearances only just about reaching the 22 itself. As a result pressure built and they soon scored a good try after a period of possession. From the restart they again pegged us back deep in our half and they scored again after a counter ruck where we were rucked off ball we had initially won - this was a theme throughout the game.

We then started to contest better around the middle of the pitch, with several people such as Jamie, Jed and Joel (all the J's!) driving the ball hard at them and we also won some turnover ball, but they then scored another good try out wide after having retained the ball for several phases. Our defence was not weak, in fact it was better than it has been for some time, we just eventually succumbed to pressure as they retained possession well and built good positions in wave after wave of attack. And then their winger scored a really well taken try in the corner, catching a neat kick ahead by their fly half. So we ended the half 0-24 down, but very much because of the wind and being unable to play much rugby at all in their half.

We started poorly in the second half, knocking on their kick off and soon after losing a scrum as well, but then Aram made a good interception and we started to gain possession, build phases and really attack. Sam Evans made a thundering run from a tapped penalty, only for the ball to be knocked on in the centre when it was recycled. Sam Leeves was really coming into the game at this point, making lots of breaks but always unable to get in the offload we needed to keep momentum in the attack he had created. They then created a very good rolling maul from a line out on our 22 right up to our try line and scored to make it 0-31 (rolling maul from line out is a difficult but very good skill to master).

After this we lost another scrum on our 22 but we survived the attack and Jed then ran hard and made 30 yards from a tap penalty but we then lost the ball in contact (need to work on good body position). And after this we attacked for most of the rest of the game, getting into their 22 often and causing the oppo. problems, especially through George who was now playing in the centre and who made lots of half breaks. We were also being very unlucky not to be awarded a penalty under the posts for a blatant offside from an attempted clearance kick, but we were unable to score due to the quality of their defence.

The game ended 0-31, which sounds like a thrashing, but in truth we were quite competitive and on the whole actually played quite well. A number of new players, such as Connor and George did well in their first competitive games, whilst Sam Leeves and Sam Evans both made a big contribution in their first games for the B's, Daniel Willicombe was more dynamic at fly half, Andrew Dearden was really solid in defence at full back and Aram had a cracking half in his first game back. So there are lots of positives to take from this game, as well as some obvious weaknesses to address such as being rucked off the ball too often.

The Old Emanuel coach said afterwards that this was their best performance of the season by a long way and everything they tried had worked. We were unlucky to get them so on form! Overall the boys stuck to task well, never gave up, tackled their hearts out and were unlucky not to score. On another day we could have scored several tries.