Bracknell U14s v Windsor U14s

The weather was perfect, and hopes were high.
The first third began with almost our full B team, and they started off with some direct play and good aggression, with an early score, 5-0 to Windsor. Bracknell came back strongly for Dylan S to score, 5-5. Windsor then struck again to go 10-5 up, before we strung together a great backs move that Thomas ended by twisting and turning to wriggle over and score. Alex M kicked a great conversion to end the session 10-12 up.
The second third got underway, and our forwards began to up the aggression, and a great driving phase of play led to another Thomas try out wide, 10-17. We then had the move of the match. We were defending valiantly in our 22, when suddenly Casey stole the ball and broke through several tackles to reach full speed and was only caught on their 22 when he ran out of steam! Windsor conceded a penalty, we subbed Dylan P on for Casey to allow him to recover, and Dylan smashed over to score, with Alex M adding the extras to put us 10-24 up at the end of the second third.
The final third got underway with a great backs move where Alex M scored and converted, putting us 10-31 up. There was then a long injury break where their giant lock had a suspected neck injury after a great 3 man tackle by Bracknell, and the game restarted in our 22. A quick move led to Harrison running the length of the pitch down the left wing, and Louis W converting, for 10-38. These two repeated this score to put us 10-45 up with minutes to go, and thoughts turned to whether we could reach the half century. However, Windsor had other ideas, and ground their way up into our 22, and eventually scored a converted try to finish the match 17-45.
The boys all were great - several played in new positions, everyone tried to the end, and Windsor's late try proved that they had the ability to cause trouble if we switched off at any point.

by Phil Wells