Under 16 rugby report – July 25

U/16 SPC – v Melbourne Grammar

After a touch up from GGS the week before the U16 team were determined to fix some of their errors. We were up against Melbourne Grammar who were placed one above us on the ladder. The focus for the week was winning this game through dominating possession and not turning the ball over once it was in hand.

From the kick off it was obvious that the SPC team had come to win. Already buoyed by a convincing U14 performance our attitude and control of the ball was first rate from the start.

Early on we dominated in the forwards pushing MGS back and winning a number of scums and dominating the rucks. This allowed quality ball to flow to the backline who ran hard with skill. This controlled possession resulted in a scrum mid field where Jesse took the ball from the back and ran hard through a number of tackles in a 15-20m run resulting in the opening try. Simon, who was running the water, passed on the message of retaining the ball from the kick off and holding on to it; MGS restarted with a kick taken by Jaspa.

Jaspa ran hard through the middle and off loaded to the backs Leo ran straight and broke the MGS line. He was bought down and off loaded in the tackle to Ryan who again passed, under pressure, to Isaac on the wing who scored in the corner. This was by far the best team try I had seen from this group in the three years we’ve been together.

MGS ran a few changes at the kick off including bringing on a big and hard running front rower. This meant the scrums and rucks were not going to be as easy for the remainder of the game. MGS then retained possession for a decent period of time keeping it mostly in their forwards, this resulted in an eventual try despite a huge effort in defence by SPC. From the next kick off SPC regained the ball and lead a series of attacks, these lead to MGS infringing and Jesse, with quick thinking, saw the MGS weren’t back 10m and exploited this through a decent run to score his second try. At half time the score was 15-5.

The players were urged to keep targeting the MGS key forwards and to retain possession. The second half was a real tussle with possession going to both teams; the first score of the half went to MGS who exploited our dropped ball and scored in the corner on the back of a good backline move. From the next kick off SPC again put MGS under pressure resulting in a MGS kick that didn’t find touch; the kick was regained by Isaac who linked well with Ryan. He exploited the space available to maximum advantage and after a 60m individual run, beating around five tackles, scored a great try.

With the score at 20-10 MGS lifted and SPC had to defend for most of the remaining time period. Eventually MGS scored on the final whistle after SPC had been reduced to 14-players. Final score was 20-15; a deserving win to SPC against an older and bigger team.

Areas for SPC to work on:

— – – – – – – – – Being off our feet at the breakdown (we were penalised for this over 10-times, ending in a yellow card)

— – – – – – – – – Kicking for touch and our passing

SPC Best:

— – – – – – – – – Jesse led from the front scoring two fantastic tries

— – – – – – – – – Luke had a massive game winning four lineouts against the throw and grinding out the yards in attack

— – – – – – – – – Leo was really impressive at 13 with some big defence and hard running

— – – – – – – – – Isaac and Ryan both had fantastic games on the wing and fullback

— – – – – – – – – Joel was tireless at Loose forward

— – – – – – – – – Will targeted their best and biggest player all day and never took a backward step

— – – – – – – – – Liam had a much improved game

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