Old Cats U 13 vs Guildford

Tighter than a nats doo dah comes to mind when summarising the performance of this game. Tries from an interception pass and a fly hack kick with a lucky bounce was all that separated the Guildford & Old Cats Under 13 team on Sunday.

Both teams performances were very evenly matched, but this could have been such a very different encounter. The Old Cats boys left their rugby brains at home on Sunday. Securing good possession in all areas of the field, only to make it difficult on themselves to run back into the masses of Guildford in the middle of the park, rather than looking to play our game of stretching the opposition across the field.

With conditions more suited to sailing, rather than rugby, Old Cats won the toss and elected to go down the field in the first half. Guildford held onto possession, but there was no way through the Old Cats tough defence. The lines were strong with the backs coming up quickly as a unit when the ball came out of the Guildford rucks and scrums, denying Guildford the opportunity to play. When Cats did secure the ball the boys elected to go through the traffic in the middle of the field, rather than play to the outside of the field to stretch the defence. After a period of Old Cats sustained attack, came an interception pass with Guildford running up the field to score a try. Half time 0-5.

In the second half, Old Cats were looking to get their game plan together and had much more of the ball. Possession is 9/10 of the law in any walk of life, and Guildford was constantly being pushed back. Then came a loose ball out of the ruck, an opportunistic fly hack kick with a lucky bounce for a try. 0-12 full time.

There were so many individual performances of positives though. Without singling out each team member we had:
Beau – A great game, being used as battering ram to gain the extra valuable yards. He was up for this game.
Will – Bouncing the opposition off with his ‘Caterham side step’ – The Samoan side step has nothing on this!
Seb – Great tackles
Salih – Debut match performance, showing great speed and skill all over the park.
Ross – Magician, beating defenders without going into contact.
Leo - Man of the Match performance for his great defensive and attacking work in equal measures. (He will sleep well on Sunday).

Special thanks goes out to Mike Duckett who fed the masses (under 13 and under 15 teams), with enough left over to feed hungry coaches, parents and stray dogs. Also thanks to Louise, Eva & Tony who served the masses.

Also thanks to the boys of Guildford – great sportsmanship on the field and great behaviour off the field.

Final score Old Cats 0-12 Guildford
Man of the match Leo