U9s - Barkers Butts

Written by Martin Lloyd

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

The OL’s U9’s travelled in strength to Barkers Butts on a Bright and Breezy morning, for what turned out to be two well contested and hard fought games. Match 1  BB’s 15 – OL’s 20   The OL’s ‘A’ team got off to a flying start, Kai Bailey scoring a typically individualist try after some forceful rucking in BBs territory.  A second try quickly followed for Kai Bailey after he caught the BBs defence napping and ran in from Halfway.  BBs then upped their game and continuous forward pressure at the breakdown eventually resulted in 2 tries being conceded, halftime arriving at scores level.  OLs rejoined battle, working a try up the blind side following excellent rucking and mauling, Luke Green touching down after some excellent Forwards/Backs work. BBs struck back with another try but OLs were not giving up – after another punishing phase of rucking & mauling, Alex Witchell danced his way through 3 defenders and carried one over the line with him to score the decisive try.  The industry of Forwards Tom Hoare, Rory Holland and George Smith at the breakdown provided a solid platform for the linking play of Lewis, Luke and Alex in the backline.   Against sizeable and aggressive opponents, OLs showed determination and skill to make every parent (and player) proud.   Match 2 BB’s 25 – OL’s 0   The OL’s Development squad put in a mammoth amount of work in a game whose final score line belied the closeness of the encounter.  After two quick scores from BBs, OLs might have felt disheartened - but some fine tackling and rucking made the opposition work hard for every yard of progress.  The second half saw BBs score 3 more tries, capitalising on gaps in our defence and missed tackles – in attack OLs never really broke the shackles of a tight BBs defensive line, although Edward Commander made several spirited breaks.

 

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