U14s Lose league game but show real pride and passion

What a day!! With our squad manager still enjoying the Irish defeat of the All Blacks we started the preparation with just 6 players as the last email on the Saturday night had us meeting at kick off!! All credit to Haywards Heath who willingly to put the kick off back until all our squad could turn up.

The kick off from Freddie K launched one of our best starts to a game. This triggered a 10 mins encampment in the HHRFC half. With the line beckoning the forwards bossed this period with Sam T, Sam W, Jasper and Oli T providing real go forward. With the white line not crossed HHRFC stole the ball and it ended up in the hands of an inside center of real pace. He turned out to be our nemesis for the whole game and was arguably the difference between the two sides.

This set the scene for the rest of the first half with HHRFC running up most of their tries in the this half.

With Tom moving to and playing well at 10 for most of the game we had many players playing in different positions. We started the second half with the wind and slope against us. What a performance the team gave. New energy from Ellis, George and Harry helped transform the team's attitude. We played some great rugby winning the possession battle of the half. Three players played their best games for us today. OLi H was never offside, everywhere on the pitch and at the heart of everything. The second was Ben Bray who showed great resolve and tackling skill when faced with many aggressive runners. Lastly was Bradley who showed power and strength in the scrum and real determination at the breakdown. Indeed this was one of the best rucking displays of the season. However we must take our hat of the the try scoring machine in HHRFC who never stopped causing us problems. Frankie never flinched in the face of several swarming attacks with Stan making a couple of good hits.Special mention must go to Finn for his best game at 9 and creating real problems for the opposition. Freddie M acquitted himself well after finding himself at centre and Toby was solid on the left wing for the whole game.

The coaches were immensely proud of the second half performance which showed the true character of our squad. We will be working on decision making especially near the line. Though not Jack L for his decision to show the doc his healthy leg at the end of the game!