U8's: Loughor Away 25.02.07

Date: 25.02.07

South Gower 5, Loughor 4.

Tries : Tom Jenkins, Fergus Kneath (2), Ethan Smith (2).

Game Analysis:

Tomasso Morgan captained the Gower against Loughor on a very heavy pitch. Tomasso won the toss and elected to start with possession. From the off, we realised we were up against a good team as their defense was hard to break down. Supporting the runner was the key factor and when Jack "Bullethead" Bates had a run and was tagged, Tom Jenkins was on hand, taking the ball at speed to score a good try.
Loughor replied with a good try. South gower then started to progress up the field before going into touch and conceding a turnover. When Loughor attacked, they dropped the ball and Jack Bates dived on the ball to secure possession whilst popping the ball up in one movement to the supporting Kneathmeister Fergus who raced over unopposed for an excellently worked try.
Loughor came on the offensive but some great defense, gaining the 6 tags, ensured a turnover. Unfortunately, we could not capitalise and ran into touch. Loughor took advantage and scored a try that took us into the break at 3 -3.

Tom "Moggy" Mogridge goes on one of his mesmerising runs.

Loughor restarted the second half but South Gower's sturdy defense resulted in 6 tags and a turnover. From the off, Tom Mogridge went on a mazy, mazy, mazy run that left everyone's heads spinning. He was eventually tagged before Ethan Smith supported him and raced away to score a great try.

Ethan scores his first try of the match and pretends to fly like an aeroplane !

Loughor replied with a try before The Kneathmeister Fergus had a great run. He evaded Loughor's last defender but thought he was tagged. Luckily Ethan Smith was on hand to collect the pass and race over unopposed to score his second and South Gower's 5th try of the game.

The Kneathmeister Fergus races clear but passes because he thought he was tagged.

Loughor came at us in the dying minutes of the game, but again, great defense ensured that Loughor could not break us down to equalise as we edged them into touch, when the referee blew for the final whistle.
A good performance from us this week against good opposition. It was nice to see the training we do on a Wednesday is becoming more evident in our performances on a Sunday. The way Jack reacted when Loughor spilled the ball, diving straight on it, and how he popped it up straight away to the supporting Fergus was textbook rugby and a joy to watch. A big well done to all.

U8's: Swansea Uplands Away 18.02.07

Date: 18.02.07

Elders : South Gower 6, Uplands 6.

Tries : Tom Jenkins (2), Max Collis, Ethan Smith (2), Ben Westerholm.

Youngsters : South Gower 7, Uplands 7.

Tries : Ben Westerholm (5), Tom Jenkins, Morgan Israel.

Elders Game Analysis:

Dan Garry captained South Gower in this fiercely contested derby. The game was played on a damp morning on a very wet pitch. South Gower started well with a try by Tom Jenkins. Uplands replied before Max Collis finished off a good try after providing good support to Cameron Barker. Uplands replied again before Tom Jenkins claimed his second try of the game after putting is head down and backing his pace to go for the corner to score taking us into the break 3 - 2 up.
Uplands started the second half with possession and scored a good try. We immediately replied with Ethan Smith scoring a great try after supporting Dan Garry.

Captain Dan Garry offloads to Ethan Smith who goes on to score

Leading 4 - 3 South Gower showed great defense to claim 6 tags and turn over possession. We created some great play that saw Ethan Smith go over for his second try of the game. Uplands replied, but with a few minutes left, 1 try to the good and with possession, we were confident to hold out for the win. When we restarted, one of our player accidentally bumped into another of our players which resulted in the referee declaring a turnover of possession to Uplands for "Accidental Offside". I tried explaining to the referee that at this age, we don't play accidental offside but he was adamant and he awarded a turnover of possession. This enabled Uplands to score an equalising try and make it 5 - 5.

Unfortunately, we then had possession and got ushered into touch and Uplands took full advantage to score and take the lead at 6 -5. The referee claimed there was 2 minutes left when we restarted. Ben Westerholm took possession and ran straight through the Uplands players showing blistering pace to score an equalising try. Uplands restarted and nearly scored but their player went into touch almost immediately. We then lined up realising that this would be the last play and if we scored we would have won 7 - 6, but the referee decided that was full time.

The hardest thing was trying to explain to the children why possession was turned over to the other team when they didn't understand why. (accidental offside). All in all, a great performance from South Gower matched by some good rugby by the Uplands.

Youngsters Game Analysis:

Cellan Pitson captained the Gower youngsters against an experienced Uplands team that fielded some of their elder players.

South Gower captain Cellan Pitson stepping around the opposition.

We started with possession with Ben "The Roadrunner" Westerholm having a run. He proceeded to tear the opposition up with some great running and a fine try. It was tit for tat, try for try throughout the game. Uplands replied, Gower then scored through Tom Jenkins. Uplands replied and Ben Westerholm scored another good try. Uplands replied once more and Ben replied once more.

Laura Cheley gets her hands on the ball and produces a searing run.

Into the break Gower led 4 - 3. Uplands started the second half with possession and scored a try. This time, Morgan Israel showed great support and a winding run to score a good try. Upland scored and Ben took the stage again with a great try. Time was running out when we nearly turned over possession getting to 5 tags before Uplands broke through and scored. Again, guess who replied ! Yes that roadrunner Westerholm produced a great bit of play to cap off a fine individual performance to score his 5th try of ther game.

Man of the match, Ben "The Roadrunner" Westerholm scores his 5th try of the game.

Unfortunately, Uplands replied and the referee blew straight away for full time ending in a 7 - 7 draw. A great performance from our team. If we could improve our tagging and force some turnovers then our attacking ability will certainly guide us through to some comprehensive wins. Well done to all.

A special thanks to Andrew Thomas from Swansea Uplands who provided us with the photos.

U8's: Glynneath Home 11.02.07

Date 11.02.07

South Gower 5
Glynneath 3
Tries : Fergus Kneath, George Heard, Max Collis (2), Ben Westerholm.

Game Analysis.

Ethan Smith captained South Gower in this well earned win. South Gower had 11 players turn up, so substitutions and squad rotation was inevitable.
Ethan won the toss end elected to start with possession. Our first play resulted in a try. Ethan started with a run before offloading to Tomasso Morgan. In support came Fergus Kneath who raced away to score a good try.
Glynneath came at us with the ball, but great positional defending resulted in South Gower obtaining 6 tags and the turnover. This time, Tomasso had a run and offloaded to Ethan in the tag before George Heard took over after showing good support to score a good try.

George Heard goes over for a try after supporting Ethan.

Again, the South Gower defense was well organised and again we got the 6 tags required to get the turnover. Laura Cheley had a dash before getting tagged and passing to Ethan Smith. Ethan himself was tagged and offloaded to Max Collis who claimed an impressive try.

South Gower's well drilled organised defense was hard to break down.

After another turnover, Fergus Kneath looked to have scored his second of the game but it was harshly disallowed with the referee stating that Fergus was in touch. The picture below catches the moment perfectly and i will leave you to decide !

Fergus (clearly in field) races clear to score but the referee says he was out.

South Gower went into the break 3-0 ahead. For the second half, Glynneath reclaimed one of their players who stepped up to their Under 9's match to help out. So now we played 9 a side. Their returning player made a huge difference claiming all 3 tries for Glynneath in the second half. The half started with a try for glynneath but South Gower replied instantly. Jack Bates had a jinking run before being tagged. Max Collis showed great support and took the pass and raced clear for his second try of the game.

Jack starts a winding run before Max Collis shows great support and scores the try.

Glynneath replied with a try before they got our 6 tags for a turnover in possession. This time though they spilled the ball forward and Ben "The Roadrunner" Westerholm pounced on it. Ben then went on a fantastic long run to score a great try. Glynneath again replied with a try but the final whistle sounded with South Gower winning 5 - 3.
Another excellent performance from everybody with great defense and even better support in attack. Well done.