Old Cats Under 13 vs Effingham & Leatherhead

The Old Cats under 13 team travelled to Effingham & Leatherhead for a very early and cold start. With most of the boys turning up early (so early we had to wait for the gates to open), you can tell they were keen and ready!

The first 10 minutes of the match started as we finished the Camberley match, full of skill, action desire and controlled aggression. Dominating large parts of the play and giving the opposition a real test on their home turf - all that we ask of the boys. Then came the banana skin. A couple of quick tries from Effingham & Leatherhead, the Old Cats heads went down and they could not really recover from this. The self belief which they had in abundance at the start of the game quickly evaporated and then we were off by 15%, which is all that Effingham & Leatherhead needed to turn the screws and capitalised.

It was not all heads down though; our rucks were solid, constantly pushing E&L off the ball which gained plaudits from the opposition coaches. There were also some great individual performances which really need to be noted.

Charlie – continues to make an impact for Old Cats, breaking the lines in the middle of the field and proving to be a real handful for the opposition.

Harry – just gets better each week, growing in confidence and skill all the time. His defensive work was excellent and was finished off with some great monster tackles. What a way to celebrate his birthday. Happy birthday Harry!

Alex A – great work in the scrum, hooking the ball quickly so we could get the ball out, before the opposition had chance to make the push.

Luke – our newbie to the team. Playing in his debut performance in an Old Cats shirt, but already with confidence & skill. One to definitely watch for the games ahead.

But our man of the match performance goes to Will. Coming back after 4 weeks absence from an appendix operation he put in a great performance as if he had never been away. Showing everything in a great player, from winning the ball, making tackles and making the yards in attack. He did all of this under the strict guidance of ‘taking it easy’ as he was still in recover mode from his operation!

We all know that we have got the basis of a great team. The opposition coaches also know and have taken note that we have the basis of a great team. The boys just need to believe in themselves and their team mates and the results will come. Playing 15% off your game is like playing with 13 people.