Hoppers U11’s v Sedgley Park U11’s Sunday 16th October 2011
Hoppers had exactly enough for 2 teams and Sedgley arrived with about 14 players so 2 games of 2 minutes each were arranged. The weather was kind although the pitch a bit heavy under foot.
Hoppers were soon on the front foot with some strong forward play and there was some excellent work in the off load particularly from Will Austin. Our backs saw plenty of the ball and some clever inter play soon lead to the first try by Will Gargett. Straight from the kick off our forwards began exerting pressure on Sedgley and it wasn’t l;ong before Cam Wilkinson powered his way over the line. A third try was there for the taking but after great support from Tom Hanigan after a Gargy break, Tom unfortunately knocked on when the try line was beckoning. During the first half there was more excellent team play and more tries could have been scored had passes gone to support players rather than taking the ball into further contact.
The second half was more of the same with a dominant forward display and further tries coming from Will Dowbiggin and Will Gargett. All 4 tries were convereted by Gargy.
MOTM was Will Austin
The final score was Hoppers 28 Sedgley Park 0
In the second game we fielded a completely different team who soon got down to some hard grind in the forwards. We misfielded the first kick off but soon recovered to move the ball into the opposition half where we stayed and the pressure soon told when Morgan Rees playing his first game in a Hoppers shirt went over for the first try. Our scrum was functioning well and our props, Innes and Owen were pushing hard. A turnover ball near the end of the first half was fed down the backs and a lovely pass from Morgan to John Gornall saw him run half the length of the pitch to score. There were a couple of needless kicks in the first half which turned ball over and we addressed this at half time.
The second half did not produce any more scores thanks to some good defensive work by Sedgley which gave them more possession that they had had in the first half. It was only some very strong tackling by Hoppers that prevented Sedgley scoring and one such tackle resulted in an injury to one of their wingers. They introduced e couple of players new to the game who settled well into the game. We wish the injured player a speedy recovery to his leg as an ambulance had to be called.
Both tries were converted by Cam Hayward
Final score was Hoppers 14 Sedgley 0
Overall the 2 performances were good and areas that we will be working on in training are chasing the kick and decision making when there is an overlap.
JK
