U11A victorious in tight match at Henley

Sunday 15th February 2009

 

Maids U11A 7 - Henley U11A 0
The U11s came through victorious in a tough match at Henley which was preparation for the Wasps tournament next weekend. Short of several regular players due to school half-term holidays and illness, the rearranged side took some time to settle, but the players who came up eventually fitted in very well and played their part. Notably Xabi Leadbetter and Jack Nicholls.

In the first half there were a number of skirmishes, but no tries as each team fought to establish their superiority. The play moved from end to end, but both defences were strong, with notable tackling from Umar Marriot and Shane McKenna.

In the second half Maids chose to use the width of the pitch better and this ultimately paid dividends as the only try of the game came from their ability to quickly move the ball along the line to winger Ben Gordon, who crashed over in the corner.

U11 Bs suffer from providing cover to the A-team and go down 21-7 to Henley Bs
A very raw and developing team, for many of whom this is still their first season of rugby, worked hard but in the end were not good enough against a more experienced Henley team. In the first half Maids took some time to settle and get used to the playing patterns and were soon 21-0 down after strong back line attacking from Henley. However, in the second half, Maids settled down and applied pressure themselves to win the second half through an excellent opportunist try from Alex Thompson, who caught a clearance kick on the wing and ran it back up the pitch to score.