| A wonderfully sunny early November morning saw Reading u11s host a home game
against a well drilled and large squad from Basingstoke. Two matches were played. |
| Game 1. RRFC 10 - BRFC 0 |
| Basingstoke won the toss and took the first kick of the game, the ball was
received well and Reading were immediately racing forward to meet the challenge.
Basingstoke held their ground and after some initial good scrumming started to put our
chaps under pressure. For the next fifteen minutes everything including the kitchen sink
was thrown at the Reading defence,some of the problems were of our own making with some
balls being knocked on or simply fumbled. Boys new to the side as well as the seasoned
players however defended like lions and kept their heads when things looked bad. In the
last five minutes of the half the tide subtly changed and the play moved to the centre of
the pitch. A good maul from connor was fed out to lesedi(mercedes)who dashed forward to
great effect. Basingstoke were now defending and a series of scrum wins and better
posession from our lads nearly came to something in the last play of the half when four
passes were strung together, david running along the wing and only being stopped from
scoring by a well timed tackle by a Basingstoke player on the try line. |
| The second half was started with a good kick into opposition territory by
Caisley playing full back. Play continued as it had been at the end of the first half
with Reading pushing forward. More scrums were being won and when a rush forward by
Tyler, Montel and Charlie saw the pack linking up and working together, an opening
appeared for Lesedi to rush over the line for the first Try of the morning. solid play
continued and good running from Ben and a sprint down the line from Luke made sure
Basingstoke were always defending. A couple of good tackles and another good hard maul
near the end of the game saw Charlie then run a good distance and plant the the ball
over the line for Reading's second Try . |
| Game 2. RRFC 0 - BRFC 15 |
| Game two began with Basingstoke bringing on a few new fresh players. The
change was almost instant and again Reading were defending hard. Both sides were were
warned for players high tackling but it was a good natured game and was obviously
unintentional. Basingstoke were more fluid at this stage and passing the ball well
and despite some strong tackling from all the players and a great interception from
Philip the visitors could not be held and scored a couple of fast Tries. Reading were
winning a lot of line outs but were bunching a little towards the end and not making
enough of kicking opportunities. A pass from Tristram and a jinking run from Gordon
pushed our guys on to perhaps their best chance of scoring late in the second half of
this game but again Reading gave the advantage away in the scrum and Basingstoke broke
through the lines to score their third try. |
| All the players from both sides were, it was obvious to see, absolutely
shattered at the end of the match. Every ball had been competed and fought for. The
two sides were very evenly matched and as many a parent and coach said the games
were a pleasure to watch. |
| A few points were made during the morning with regards to things our boys
could work on and improve upon in training. A good deal of ball was lost to passes
that were less than a pass and more of a lob and susequently the rate of drops and
fumbles were high. The pack were being pinged for pushing too early and also not
binding on properly leading to the scrum collapsing and tactical kicking disappeared
almost completely. |
| All in all though I think everyone would agree another solid performance
from an improving side. |
| Jim Morrin |