Hoppers U13s 42* Bolton U13s 12
Sunday 1st February
Firstly, thanks to all those who were able to make it to Hoppers today on a crisp, but pleasant (if not a bit chilly out of the sun) morning. Firstly I would like to express a huge thankyou to Bolton, who brought a fantastic set of players, coaches, parents and supporters. They possessed a fantastic approach and attitude, which made for a wonderful morning of rugby. As it turned out, their coach informed me that he was missing half a dozen of his better players and he was concerned they would not give us much of a game. Despite the final score in favour of Hoppers, the gutsy Bolton players stuck at the task in hand, never let their heads drop, and produced some strong plays and caused Hoppers a few problems at times.
From a Hoppers point of view, following (if I’m honest), a fairly relaxed and lack lustre warm up, the lads were told to treat it as a cup match as we really weren’t sure how much of a challenge Bolton would provide. As it turned out the boys really controlled the game throughout, with some strong forward performances. I’m not going to single players out as the forwards really had control as a unit throughout the match. This allowed the backs to get in some strong running caused the Bolton defence all sorts of problems.
Tries were scored at regular intervals throughout the match, with 4 tries in the first half, leading to a half time score of 22 – 7 to Hoppers.
The match continued in the same vein in the second half, with the boys in control throughout, apart from one lapse which led to a well constructed try by Bolton. That was just one blip, however, and the boys were soon back in control of the match, with a further 6 tries in the second half.
I said I wasn’t going to single players out, but I have changed my mind ! I would welcome additional input from Matt and James (who will see things different to me as I was in the middle of it all !!), but a number of players stood out today. Max Gardner was excellent up front, with some real “go-forward” from Charlie Smith as well. In the backs, Lincoln, Jak and Declan were also outstanding, which meant we were always going forward and pressurising the brave opposition.
Man of the match was Lincoln, who produced a superb performance (as did many others) and he really stood out.
The final score of 60 – 12 was made up of tries from Lincoln (4), Declan (2), Charlie, Max G, Toby and Alex. Lincoln made 5 conversions. Bolton managed 2 tries with 1 converted. I also wanted to mention the attitude, commitment and respect shown by our boys as well in such a result – we are very proud of you all !
Apologies for the quality of this report – its a bit rushed and a million miles from Glen’s standard, but hey, who can match Glen on his reports !!
Thanks to you all again, and it will be fantastic to have the whole squad back (as well as the full coaching team) in the coming weeks !
Once a Hopper………..
