Under 11's V Gowerton 13.09.09

13th September 2009

Gowerton 5 - South Gower 40

Tries : Jack Bates (3), Tom Mogridge (2), Callum Carson (2), Ethan Smith.
(No conversions taken in this game)

Match Report

Our 1st game of the season was away to Gowerton on a beautiful sunny morning. We started the 1st half well and within 2 minutes we had registered our first try. A South Gower scrum just inside the Gowerton half provided the platform for Tom Mogridge to pick up at the back of the scrum and go blind. Tom stepped a few players and sprinted in for his 1st try from 35 yards. Minutes later, good work by our forwards provided the platform for our backs. Moggy got the ball to Cameron who in turn fed Callum who powered his way through several tackles to register our second score.
Clearly buoyed by our good start, some more good mauling from our forwards, we smuggled the ball back to Jack Bates who powered his way over from 20 yards out. Gowerton restarted and we started going through the phases before more good work from the forwards presented clean ball to Moggy at scrum half. He had the vision to spot the gap and go clean through for another impressive try. Coming to half time, more pressure from the mighty all blacks provided us with our 5th try. Jack Bates ripped the ball from his opponents, peeled off the back of the maul for another try.

Half time - South Gower 25, Gowerton 0.

5 subs made at half time to ensure everyone plays, and we started on the offensive again, with some lovely hands through the backs getting the ball to Ethan Smith on the wing. Ethan defied his size stepping past players and diving over in the corner with the opposition hanging on to him. A moments lapse in concentration saw Gowerton apply pressure on us going through several phases with their forwards with good rucking and the opposition managed to slip a tackle and register a try from 20 yards.
Restart and after a good turn over and a few phases, the ball went wide to Sam Jones on the wing who was tackled. In support first was Jack Bates who drove forward and stretched for the line with Gowerton trying to hold him back, Jack scored his 3rd try.
With 5 minutes remaining, it was time for Kieran Charles to enter the fray. Kieran transferred to us from Gowerton this season. Unfortunately, Kieran suffered a nasty accident in training wednesday putting his debut for the All Blacks in doubt against his former club. After pleading and pleading to play, It was agreed to give him his 5 minutes against them. He put in a few solid tackles before setting up our last try. The ball came to him at outside half from a scrum in our own half, a dummy scissors and sprint before passing to Callum Carson on the wing, who stepped his way past several tackles to score our last try.
This was an impressive performance from the boys considering they have only had 2 training sessions since may. Parts of our play have been identified that we need to concentrate on in training which will be rectified.

Players to mention.

Sam Jones, new to rugby half way through last season, showed massive improvement, taking the ball on several times and making some great tackles.
Elliot Waddington, made some very impressive tackles before being forced off injured.
Michael Jones, another player new to the game last season, is now running with confidence and tackling really well.
Ethan Smith, an under 10 playing a year up, again showed why he is doing just that ! more impressive though was his tackling, much better. well done Ethan.
We have Penlan away next week as we will look to build on an impressive opening game of the season.
Well done Boys.

South Gower Under 12's : 2009/2010

Update Pre-Season 2009-2010
Registration is going well with 18 players now either registered or in-process. By the start of the first game, we should have 20 players with an opportunity to recruit new players at Bishopston Comp in September. Of these, we have 4 new players from Craig-y-nos (as well as an assistant coach) who are all very welcome and will easily slot into the team.

Training starts this Wednesday 5th August at 6:15pm at the club. The first few sessions will be light fitness / skills development as the majority of the team will be on vacation until end of August.

Teamer.net is now being used for all practice and match notifications. If you have not replied to your invite, please do so asap otherwise you risk not being notified. First Game will be on Sunday September 6th away at Mumbles. This will either be at Underhill or at the Comp depending on the other fixtures. Kick off will be at 11am but we will meet at 10:15 to get kit and positions organised.

South Gower U11 Ospreys Cup Festival

The Squad

South Gower U11's attended the Ospreys Junior Rugby Festival in Bridgend on April 5th.
The weather was great and at only 12 minutes per game with no half time, it promoted fast rugby. As the district selectors were present, it was also a good opportunity for the boys to show their skills.
Unfortunately, we were drawn in one of the toughest groups - some dodgy refereeing also did not help. The scores (in tries) were as follows :

Penclawdd 7 : South Gower 0
Maesteg Welsh 3 : South Gower 0
Averavon GS 0 : South Gower 0
Kenfig Hill 2 : South Gower 0

With the exception of Penclawdd, it was noticable that the standard was fairly consistent across the pools which should lead to a good tournament next year. The level of effort was excellent, however holes in the central defence and the inability to convert possession into tries is something that needs to be worked on in practice. All in all a good day out.

(Unfortunately one of the coaches was also smashed into by someone from the Penclawdd team on the M4 : at least it wasn't his wife driving !!)