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Under 16 Match Report

Sunday 14th October 2007

Barker Butts 60pts  v   Lutterworth 0pts

The score line belies the effort put in by the lads today; this was a hard fought game against very good opposition. Lutts conceded a penalty after only 3 minutes and Barkers kicker, Josh Knight, gave warning of his abilities as he slotted the ball between the posts from 30 meters.

The first of their tries was run in under the posts after 5 minutes and duly converted to take the score to 10 – 0.  Despite some good rucking and scrummaging the tries were being scored and converted at regular intervals throughout the first half due mainly to poor tackling and handling errors. Towards the end of this half the lads showed what could have been when a sustained period of decent ball control put the Butts try line under pressure, the ball was tapped forward and the touch down only just missed, however the last try of the half was beautifully worked from a penalty kick to the corner. The ball was spread from wing to wing before being carried over and again converted by Knight. The half time score 31 – 0.The second half kicked off and due to injuries would have to be played with uncontested scrums. Lutts kicked off and were immediately put under pressure again, a situation which I’m sure Mikey would sooner forget soon ensued, Butts, on the attack again lofted a high ball towards the posts which seemed to be heading for Mikey’s usually safe hands, however the chase had been good and just as we all thought the ball was safe a yard from the try line it was plucked from under his nose and the ball was grounded under the posts to the sound of Mikey’s “OH S***!”. The conversion was taken and the score was 38 – 0. Several more tries were scored in the left hand corner but this position didn’t seem to favour the kicker and the ensuing conversions from this position were missed. The second half saw some very hard and brave tackling and everyone put themselves on the line, this began to tell on the Butts players and several of them showed their frustration by means of ill tempered and sometimes violent behaviour. The game ended with a fantastic cross field kick which was caught, grounded and duly converted to leave the score at 60 – 0.

The coaches’ comments after the game reflected the amount of effort the lads had put in and praised their discipline which had been sorely tested at times; a special mention was made of the scrum which, in the first half, had been very good. Lessons are to be learnt from this experience.

MotM…Forwards, Sam Walsh.

               Backs, Alex Dann.

Thanks to Nick Barker for this report.