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Under 14’s
Narrow defeat for U14’s in Waterfall Cup Round 2
01/02/25
Under 14’s
Waterfall Cup Round 2 – 26th Jan 2025
Cranleigh RFC U14s v London Irish U14s
Any proponents of Rugby Football being a summer game, could surely have used this very match as a reason why that should be the case. This was a challenging match for a Cranleigh side short on playing time, with our last game being in mid December and with a first round bye in the Cup last weekend. We were challenged by the weather, which was truly horrible, challenged by our performance which was well below where we want to be and challenged by an opposition who were just more on their game than we were.
In what has become an unpleasant tradition, Cranes appear to like to concede early. But this always kick starts an immediate comeback and today was no exception. Irish, a big, well drilled side had come off the back of a tight, high scoring victory in Round 1 and looked “up” for this match. This told in the opening plays of the game where we offered Irish safe passage straight to our try line, with defence being an optional extra we decided not to use. A bit of a coach killer. 0-7 to Irish. But, as is our way, the opening try was to kick start to our game. As the wind grew in strength so did our resolve and some strong carries saw us take the game to Irish. But our handling was erratic and a number of loose passes and dropped balls, took the sting out of the attack. This meant we had a lot of possession in our own half but rarely made the gain line as we continually moved the ball sideways with little forward momentum. However credit to George, Arlo and Alex for some hard direct running into contact which did get us on the front foot as the half went on, but we were not able to make enough ground to get ourselves into the Irish half for long enough to put pressure on their defence. But a knock on from a cracking tackle from Riley saw Alex gather loose ball and step two defenders for a sprint up the right side before popping a pass to Johnny to dot down on the line. But a high hand off from Alex was judged a penalty offence and so no try. A penalty to Irish who cleared to touch. In broken play a penalty against Irish gave us the opportunity to give our forwards another run, but with an increasingly gusty wind, a tactical error to kick to touch saw us fumble a line-out from behind where the kick was taken and Irish were able to get on the front foot. However with our defence looking much more solid, Irish were repelled and from turnover ball and a good 10 phases of play, with determined direct carries and quick ball, we eventually went wide and Stanley had a strong run in to score in the left corner. With ever strengthening wind a difficult conversion for Johnny fell short. 5-7 at halftime.
The second half began with the wind behind us and the rain on its way. Irish began strongly with some big carries into contact, but with our defence doing well enough to keep Irish at bay, a penalty on our line gave us the chance to clear for touch. But some poor handling by Cranes saw Irish gather loose ball off the ground and stroll in under the posts to go 5-14 up with the conversion. Conditions by now were horrible and handling errors from both sides didn’t make for much attractive rugby, but credit to everyone who stuck at their tasks.
A Cranes scrum in our 22 and some simple passing saw Stanley go on an arcing run to score under the posts with Johnny converting to go 12-14 and it’s game on. From broken play Alex received a pass on our 10m line and went on a blistering run to beat all defenders and race towards the line. With what looked a nailed on try, only an absolute belter of a tap tackle 3m out and a knock saved Irish from going behind. From an Irish missed kick to touch and resulting ruck Jack fed the ball to Alex who once again went on a direct run through the Irish defence and with the try line in sight, but blinded by the torrential rain and howling winds scored a cracking try….on the 5m line…… (we’ve all done it) and it was play on. A wonderful thing to note about this team is that the boys put an arm around Alex and just got on with the game. The coaches love to see this. That is team spirit and that is SO important.
The remainder of the game was a melee of dropped passes, short bursts of attacking play from both sides, some good tackles and frozen players. With neither side looking like scoring the final whistle was a relief for players, coaches and spectators. It wasn’t a classic, but huge credit to both sides for sticking at it and never giving up.
A 12-14 loss this time but we will be better for that game.
A really pleasing note was to see our line out functioning well and credit to Aden for his work on his throw in and also in defence. Also to Alex who had a cracking game for us.
We loved welcoming back players from last year and it was great to see teammates not selected coming down to warm up with the match day squad and stay and watch.
Hot showers and post match tea have never been so welcome.
Big thanks to Chris Murray for reffing and to Viviana and her helpers for a fabulous match tea.
Man of the Match as voted for by Irish – Alex
Dick of the Day – as voted for by himself….also Alex. (Note: the try line is the solid line running through the posts…😉).
Chipstead away in the Cup tomorrow, fingers crossed for better weather and a win!