Under 12s Brighton Festival 18th October 2015

Heathfield U12s match report from Brighton Festival.
After 2 successful weeks of festivals, the boys arrived at Brighton in confident mood. Three tough teams to face – Hove, Pulborough and Worthing meant a big challenge. Unfortunately, with a large amount of the squad unavailable (12 boys on the day), some of the boys on their third festival in 3 weeks and first festival starters resulted in a performance that can be described as a bit of a ‘tough day at the office’.
The first match up was against Hove. The start of the match was quite attritional and narrow from the H&WRFC boys, rucking at the breakdown but struggling to hold onto the ball with Hove counter rucking and stretching the play out wide. Good hooking at the scrums meant the boys managed to have regular ball, but a combination of Hove’s defence and H&WRFC’s imprecise passes saw a half time score of 0-0. With no subs the 12 boys had to soldier on and with Hove freshening things up and pushing on with fluid passes saw them run out 2-0 winners at full-time. The coaches addressed the boys re their defensive positioning, tackling and attacking lines in readiness for the next match against Pulborough
The effort and commitment could not be faulted in the first half; strong running, good defence and hooking at the scrum kept a physical Pulborough at bay. A hand off above the shoulder too many saw a penalty to H&WRFC deep in the opposition half and from the resulting play a good passing move down the line and brilliant off load in the tackle meant that Killian Kennedy scored in the corner. 1-0 at half time. Pulborough came out determined to take the second half by the scruff of the neck and the H&WRFC tackles that had been a big part of recent success suddenly became a bit of an Achilles heel and the Pulborough wingers that had been starved of the ball in the first half were suddenly in full flow, resulting in 4 second half tries. Final score 4-1 Pulborough.
With tired bodies and minds, the coaches tried to lift the boys for one final push against Worthing. H&WRFC got on top early with a good level of handling skill and passing before going into contact. Good counter rucking and physicality at the breakdown by Worthing gradually took its toll and released the backs to score 5 unanswered tries. One of those weeks when it just didn’t click – a few weeks now of training can address the areas we need to improve on.
A big thank you to the coaching team of Nathan and Phil for their efforts throughout the day and to Brighton for organising the festival.

By Mark Walley