Old Cats U14 vs Old Alleynians

In a fixture where we were missing some key people for a variety of reasons, every single player (without exception) upped their game and gave a compelling performance for themselves and their team mates.

OA won the toss and elected to use the downhill to their advantage. You could tell Old Cats were up for this fixture within the first couple of moves. Collecting the ball, running hard at OA trying to look for the holes. OA’s defence was up the mark, but you could sense that it was starting to waver. Then OA’s turned over the ball and within a nano second, their speed merchant collected the ball and dotted it down in the corner. Restart was then in the same vein, both teams having tussles in the middle of the park, the referee was doing a great job in keeping the game flowing. When there were restarts, our pack was dominate, pushing OA more often off the ball. When OA did win the ball, Paddy was putting their scrum half under pressure by moving up quickly and forcing the errors. However OA came back with a well worked try to put them 0-10 up. You just knew though that Old Cats could get this back and they did. Seb with a great kick up the field, chased hard by Leo and the rest of the team, which forced a penalty with OA off their feet. Will quick mind, with a tap and go caught OA off guard and led to a try. Half time and OA were 7-10 up, however second half Old Cats were now going downhill.

Second half was all Old Cats. To say that Old cats camped on OA’s try line was an understatement – we could have built a settlement on OA’s try line we were there for so much of the second half. Charlie going over three times for a try, however the ball was held up on each occasion – which was a credit to the dogged defence of OA. However much the Old Cats team tried, they just could not get a try.

It was getting close to the end of the match and OA turned over the ball and hoofed it up field in desperation and into touch. Old Cats throw in which was pulled up for not being straight. The referee called last play which OA elected for a scrum as a restart. Our forwards who were superb all match knew they had to win he ball cleanly, with a mighty shove they moved OA back, Paddy collecting the turnover ball, quick passing to Harrison who pinned his ears back and went for a sprint to OA’s try line. We all thought this was it! Our hard efforts of the second half would deliver the well deserved try, only for the OA’s full back to sprint across and used the side line as the last man of defence. Full time and it was 7-10 to OA.

The match had something for everyone. Old Cats knew that the performance deserved a win. OA’s knew that their defence won the match; and for the neutral, it was a heart stopping entertaining match of youth rugby at its finest.

We always pull out some individual exceptional performances, which this week is especially difficult as the whole team gave a sterling effort, however we should mention:

Paddy – winning the battle of scrum halves
Alex D – excellent work in the pack and punching the holes in the middle of the park
Lawrence - driving over the ball at the breakdown and secured turnover balls.
Josh M-L – Fantastic strong runs in the middle of the field.
JJ – really upped his game in both defence and attack.
Luke – again really upped his game especially in defence with a number of great tackles.
I want to go on calling out people, but I need to end this with a man of match performance going to Will. Superb tackling all over the field and quick mind leading to a try.

Some special thank yous:
Rocky – Great referee. In a quick match – kept up with the boys (no mean feat) and let the game flowed.
Mike D – lovely bolognese, which was polished off by players and parents.
Eva, Kristie, Sally & Ivette ensuring the boys were fed and watered.
Thank you to the boys who made the match after their other commitments and those who turned up to support their team mates even though they could not play. Just shows what a team spirit is being built here!

Try – Will x 1
Conversion Leo x 1