A cold day saw our U14’s take on the Oxford team which narrowly beat us in our first game of the season back in November. We welcomed a new player (Renzo) who played at 1 this week, a much needed potential new recruit in a week that saw us managing to field 16 players, despite some regulars Gregg P, Gregg A and Gavin all being absent. Jamie stepped in as Captain and thanks go to John Brewer, who loaned Kristian and Jack F.

Our team talk this week focused on winning the game in our heads whilst trying not to concede cheap points in the first 5 minutes. We needed to start well and capitalise on every opportunity that was presented. It was good end to end stuff, mauls, rucks and turn overs in abundance. To be fair to the lads, they started strongly and managed to keep Oxford at bay for at least 15 minutes of the first half, then the well drilled Oxford backs pushed through for their first score 5-0. We battled on, every player fighting hard for possession and putting in the tackles. Some of the tackling was excellent, Ned, Jamie, Rhys, Sam, Joe, Jack F and Renzo to name a few prolific tacklers. Other tackles were not so good technically, too high, not held or just weak; this allowed Oxford to regain territory with relative ease. Half time saw us still only 5-0 down.

We swapped Scrum half between Kyle and Jack W, ensuring everyone got at least a half. It didn’t take Oxford long to get the 2^nd try and sometime after the 2nd, our heads dropped and are hearts just didn’t seem in it as a collective. Yes, there were some excellent individual efforts and good territory gains, but we couldn’t convert individual effort into team territory gains or more importantly points. Despite our hopes of a good return match, it didn’t look like it was on the cards this week. We made one more minor change halfway through the 2^nd half, Jack W moved to the wing and let Ned into Scrum half again, we had no injuries which was good news.

We were unlucky at times, but simple handling errors, poor decision making and awareness of support players, opposition players and space was sadly lacking with Aldermaston this week. Despite some great runs from Renzo, Joe, Rhys, Sam and Jamie – we rarely made it into the Oxford 22. When we got close, we either knocked on or just lost possession due to weak rucking. Oxford meanwhile were winning line outs and scrums at will, effortlessly allowing their backs to move the ball along the line, our tackling and some Oxford handling errors probably saved us a few points, but the score steadily crept up 15, then 20-0. In the dying minutes of the game, Oxford went over for the killer blow, managing to snuff out any chance of Aldermaston resistance, their well drilled forward unit, feeding a rampaging set of backs.  Final score 25-0.

We have praised you as a team over the last few weeks for your efforts, team spirit and commitment - losing narrowly – we can’t do that this week, due to the manner in which you allowed this heavy defeat to be inflicted. Despite the negatives, we must have positives!  Some determined individual efforts; we had to tackle today, luckily, at least 70% of the team were making tackles that counted. There were some good moves and sporadic intelligent plays. We just need to convert well won territory and momentum into points, if we want to salvage our season.

Our Man of the Match this week is Joe Blower, his confidence is rightly high following a good performance for the U15’s last week. During todays’ match, his heart was in the game for the full period, he kept tackling, fighting, running with the ball and working hard to try and salvage the game for the team.  Match Photos:

http://www.aldermastonrugby.com/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&page=slideshow&gid=79&Itemid=57

Please take away the advice that Chris has given out; yes we are disappointed to lose heavily after some recent close fought matches, but this is a game...... and we can work hard and improve ourselves and our performance for next game against Newbury in 2 weeks.