Under 15 Match Report
SUNDAY 25th February 2007
Lutterworth 26pts V Vipers 10pts
With the original fixture called off by the opposition Lutterworth went into the pool looking for a fixture, the result was a match against Vipers at home. With a number of the squad away on County call up, and remembering past encounters with this team, this had the makings of a good fixture. The weather leading up to the match had left the pitch quite heavy and slippery but although rather grey and overcast the good news was that it was not cold or raining for the match.
Lutterworth kicked off and for the first 10 minutes it was a fairly evenly matched contest played mostly between the 22’s with the odd foray into the Vipers 22 by Lutterworth. It took a while for Lutterworth to work out how to deal with the additional weight of the Vipers pack and during this initial period the ball that was presented was not the best for the backs to attack with, especially given the conditions. It was just after 10 minutes when Vipers won a set scrum just inside their own half and for the first time managed to get some penetration as the ball went down the line. This ended up by providing them with sufficient space out on the wing to break away and put the first point on the board although the conversion was not made. With Lutterworth coming to terms up front the next period of play was predominantly in the Vipers half and more and more in their 22. It was with 18 minutes gone that the ball went down the line and Dom managed to get over the line but some solid defending by Vipers prevented grounding. It was just 3 minutes after this when Vipers had battled their way out of their 22 but were still in their own half that they won quick ball from a ruck that resulted in a breakaway try that was again not converted. So despite having an estimated 75% of the half in Vipers territory Lutterworth went into half time 10 points down.
From the restart it soon became apparent that the pattern of the first half would be repeated with Lutterworth being firmly entrenched in the opposition half for the vast majority of the time. It was just hoped that they could make the pressure count. As in the latter stages of the first half the Lutterworth pack was now well on terms with their opposition and Danny (who had been sub’d on at half time) was making some significant ground with blind side moves from the base of the ruck. Just six minutes in one of these breaks saw him just bounced into touch a metre or so short of the line. The resulting 5 mtr lineout was a poor one for Vipers and Danny capitalised on this, playing to the whistle he pounced on the ball and went over for a well deserved try that was also well converted by Brad. It was just six minutes later that the ball was turned over by Lutterworth and went out to the backs. This led to a line break and with good passing resulted in Jamie going over the line to put Lutterworth in the lead even though the conversion was not successful. Now that Lutterworth had their nose in front there appeared to be little to stop them. Following another 10 minutes of play with the Lutterworth pack gaining more and more authority Vipers found themselves pinned back against their line again. They put up a stout defence and withheld a number of forward drives but the inevitable happened and a pick up and drive by Eddie added another 5 points. With the conversion being made from Brad this took the score to 19-10. In the final few minutes the result was put beyond doubt by Alex who picked up the ball from a scrum some 10 metres away from the Vipers line, spotted the gap in the defence and quickly darted through to score under the posts. With the conversion being made, this time by Paddy, the mach ended with the final result of 26-10 in favour of Lutterworth.
The coaches congratulated all the players for a good performance, especially considering the conditions
Man of the Match: Forwards - Dan Ellis
Backs - Dominic Ellis