U10's vs Fall Bay (Home)

21.10.2007
South Gower 14 (2 tries : 2 conversions)
Fall Bay 52 (8 tries : 6 conversions)

The day started well with new shirts being issued to the players. Many thanks to Schaeffler (UK) Ltd ("INA") for the sponsorship - even though the company also sponsors the Scarlets!

The shirts were the highlight of the day

Again we had a good turnout of 17 players and opted to play 3 10 minute thirds. The boys however started apprehensively as this was probably the best team we will play all season. A few missed tackles and 7:0 to Fall Bay. This trend continued for the first ten minutes. It was not until the second third that we started to put together some phases - the best of which finished with Harry scoring in the corner.

Owen takes a great restart which we chased down

Some silly mistakes and another dropped ball over our line gave away an easy try. This has happened in each of the last three games and needs to be eliminated in practice.

A cracking tackle by Josh but again Fall Bay kept the ball alive by offloading in the tackle

The trend continued where we would exert a few minutes of pressure only to be pinned back by some very fast direct running by Fall Bay. Another try by Harry took the score to 5 tries to 2, however in the last 5 minutes, Fall Bay scored another few tries to earn a well deserved victory.

Harrison played his first game for the team and did well at second row - although this was not his preferred position.

Things to work on in practice / coaches comments are:

A position on the rugby pitch has a job associated with it. All forwards should follow the ball around the pitch and be in every ruck if possible - not watching the ball. All backs should run straight then pass and look to create space for the wingers who are usually the fastest in the team. If you are close to your own line - kick (until passing improves). Tackle the shorts with your eyes open and wrap your arms around like a ring of steel - not a gentle shove to the chest.

If we do all this we may beat them next time. Nice shirts though!

U10's vs Gowerton (Away)

14.10.07

Gowerton 20 (4 tries)

South Gower 10 (2 tries)

We had an amazing 22 players at practice and 18 players turn up for the game this week which was superb. Gowerton had 17 players so due to the large numbers, 3 10 minute thirds were played.

The game started much better than last week with pressure being exerted by South Gower and everyone driving over in the rucks.

Some good rucking initially gave us the advantage

This pressure paid off when Harry pushed over a defender, picked up the ball and sprinted to score. Gowerton came back with some strong running by some large boys however our tackling had significantly improved from last week and we stopped their attack. Unfortunately we just ran out of space and Gowerton tied the game at the first interval with a strong drive.

The whole team (with the exception of 2 players) was then switched. Gowerton started the second third very strongly and scored a push over try due to some high tackling. We did not really have much space to run and when we did, we chose not to pass and lost the ball in the tackle. Some sloppy defending led to a third try by Gowerton after we dropped the ball over our own line.

We did not look ready for the ball just before we dropped it and they scored

Just before the second whistle, Gowerton broke away and scored their fourth try which took the score to 4 tries to 1.

George just misses the tackle with a double pike dive but Tom and Dan were covering and took him down

In the final third, we tried to switch the players to ensure everyone played the same amount of time. Tackling and pressure improved which caused Gowerton to lose the ball near their line and Owen E was on hand to pick up and score. The South Gower coaches made their final substitutions however the ref did not stop play which meant we had 16 players on the pitch at once - interesting. Normality was almost restored and after some good breaks and crunching tackles, the final whistle blew.

A very good game which was again frustrating as it could easily have been won if all 18 players were awake. Final score 20 : 10 - although we drew, lost then won each of the thirds.

Win, lose or draw, the boys still sang at the end of the game : well done !

Under 9's V Felinfoel (Away) 07.10.07

07.10.07

Felinfoel 0
South Gower 3

Tries Scored : Tom Jenkins (2), Tom Mogridge.

Again this week we had a great turnout with 13 players. We played 9 a-side as Felinfoel only had 9. We started well with some good passing and running. Tom Jenkins received the ball wide and used his pace to accelerate away to the corner to score his, and South Gowers' first try of the match.


Tom Jenkins speeds down the touchline for his first try of the game

Felinfoel restarted but some excellent tackling from Gower, namely George Grammenos and captain George Heard ensured we turned over the ball. Again the ball was passed wide to our flyer Tom Jenkins who sped over for another good try.


Tom Jenkins reels away after scoring his second try of the match

Again, Felinfoel restarted and again the Gower tackles were flying in disrupting their play. We gained a turnover and took the ball in to contact. From the resulting maul, Tom Mogridge peeled off the back unchallenged and raced clear for a try just before half time.

We made substitutions at half time to ensure everybody played. Connor Holt made his debut for the All Blacks and made an immediate impact. He tackled everything that moved ensuring we kept Felinfoel on the backfoot. The 2nd half remained scoreless although we came extremely close on a few occasions.


Ethan Smith teases Felinfoel with his "Gareth Edwards" sidestepping

What was most impressive about our play in this game, but especially the 2nd half was our passing. We have been working on our passing a lot and it really paid of here. There was one occasion when we passed the ball through every set of hands down the line, cut back inside and one of the players even had the cheek to pull off an inside pass to Cameron. I sat back an admired with only thoughts of Fijian rugby coming to mind...Awesome.

This was by far our finest performance of the season, tackling and passing was spot on. Well done everyone. We look forward to our game away to Gowerton on Sunday.