Newbury u14's v Reading

Some good, some bad, time to reflect and adapt…
(Match report from James - my turn this week)

We’re half way through now, and if any of us were still thinking the Berkshire Youth League will be predictable this year, we now know that it’s not! As the boys grow up, the tactical side of the game is really becoming a differentiator – much more so than in earlier years. Things have evolved rapidly since U13 at all clubs we face and as a squad we need to adapt and grow our tactical game in new ways, taking our talented and committed players to a new level together. In short, success and winning has to be a whole-team effort from this point forwards.

The coaching team has a plan, which is to develop a style of play for the squad that (a) suits our unique and many strengths, and (b) will bring us renewed success as the season develops. We’re beginning to see the benefits, after missing a great deal of training time as a squad this season due to County, School and London Irish Academy commitments. We’re finding ways to work around this though and it’s great to see key players returning to train in the last few weeks – I’m convinced that we’ll be back to our best before long.

So to the game itself. In the 24 hours prior to kick-off we lost a 4 starting players through illness and injury, including both flankers, Fly Half and Second-row, so were forced to make a number of changes, with varying success. I’m not going to go through a full commentary, although as coaches we took a great deal away from observing. As individuals we were often tremendous, however as a team we looked disjointed during key periods, made a few poor decisions under pressure and failed to take control in the way we’d have liked. We’ve already discussed and addresses some of these points in last night’s training and suspect that we’ll be in much better shape both tactically and structurally for the next match. It’s important to remember that often more is learnt and greater strides forward are made on the back of a defeat – however irritating that may be.

Credit to all for displaying the tenacity that Newbury is known for. Reading were the better organised team on the day, benefiting from a well-drilled back-line and a plan to out-flank us at every opportunity. That said, man-to-man they were not necessarily a match for our squad (we would say that though!). We kept our heads up, continued to show excellent discipline and ran them much closer than the score-line might suggest. No problem, we’ve learnt from it and will set about beating them well on the return-leg!

With two wins and two losses so far, we’re still second in the Berkshire A League table with much more Rugby to come.

Onwards and upwards!

James
RFU Level 2 Coach