Newbury U13 Bs v Reading U13 Bs

As for the A’s a bright and clear Sunday morning made for perfect playing conditions and with the team also set the goal to control the break down and play controlled, panic free rugby off the back.

From the outset everyone stuck to the plan, securing ball at the breakdown and distributing the ball in a controlled & calm manner.
Reading were most definitely equal to the challenge and tackled well with some good line speed & accurate passing. Newbury, however, seemed to be edging it at the breakdown and some excellent rucking from the forwards, particularly Joe Howell and good control from Dan Rutt at scrum half resulted in always retaining our ball and turning possession over on numerous occasions allowing some great running onto the ball from Jack Harman and Benjamin Kaesser driving forward, gaining many metres each time. This pressure from the forwards allowed the back line time to organise themselves, under the direction on Angus McGee which resulted in 5 tries being run in in the first half. Reading were not going to lie down, however, and some fast ball distribution and excellent running saw the first third end in a 5-5 draw.

The next third saw some changes to personnel with some players playing slightly out of position but all committing to the common cause, particularly Jonah Hood stepping into the forward line. The scrum continued to show good strength & control and Afsar continued where he left off in the first third with some great, strong, running at the Reading defence which resulted in several tries for his effort. Overall the changes to the team at the break had a slight unsettling effect and a bit of fatigue saw Reading edging it at 5-7.

The last third saw some more changes following Jack Harman’s exit after finding himself at the bottom of a collapsed scrum! Dan Perceval, having had a good third at scrum half, dropped back to full back, making some telling tackles. Newbury clearly weren’t happy with the scoreline and worked hard as a team to pull themselves back and in the closing minutes managed to pull ahead once again with a well worked try scored by Dan Rutt. Reading made the boys work for the result, especially once they had worked out they needed to close down Afsar, but Newbury finished in style at 9-7.

All in all a fabulous game of rugby with both teams showing great passion and some good skills coupled with thought for what they were doing. The comments coming from both sets of parents behind me only served to confirm what a great game of rugby that was being played out…

Well done and thanks boys for a real team performance - let’s keep this up & we’ll have many more really enjoyable days at the rugby!

Thanks also to Nick for a sterling job in the middle “Sir”..