Guildfordians match report

We took 25 players to Guildfordians for a fixture and spent most of the morning on training drills, practising a variety of passing, tackling, mauling and running. At the end one game each was played by two teams, with 3 players volunteering to play for the home team.

The A team drew 1 try each in a game very much of two halves with the pitch having a significant slope on it giving a big advantage to the down hill team. Guildfordians had a couple of very strong runners that took a lot of tackling when playing downhill. Although the tackling was generally good, the follow up work at the breakdown both in attack as well as defence wasn't good enough, with too many players trying to pick the ball up rather than driving over and securing the ball for the next player. (work to do in training next week, it probably didn’t help that the Guilfordian training had more of an accent on mauling than rucking, our preferred style of play!) Playing uphill in the first half, we eventually conceded a try and turned one down. The second half was a different story with much more of the ball and we pressed the Guildford line for while before Paddy got over and scored. We were pressing for a winner as the game ended and although the severe slope on the pitch meant that the game lacked any rhythm, the draw was probably a fair result.

In the B team game there was a good performance by all the boys (including the Bracknell boys playing for Guildford). Having gone behind in the first half to a try resulting from a strong weaving run from Guildford, Bracknell all showed great commitment to the tackle, frequently forcing Guildford backwards. In the second half Bracknell kept their heads up and with some good runs particularly by Jordan W and Dylan they were each rewarded with a try to give Bracknell a well-deserved victory by 2-1. The match contained rather more scrappy mauls than we have been used to, plus a number of penalties for hands in the ruck from both teams. Like the A's, the B's need to work hard on driving the opposition off the ball at the rucks, to not only retain possession but also avoid emulating England in giving away cheap penalties!