“Picture Postcard Surroundings For The U15s”

A depleted U15s side squeezed into four cars and travelled north to Rossendale last Sunday morning aiming to build on the last performance versus Waterloo. It was always going to be a tall order with only 12 players fit/available, but Rossendale kindly helped us to make a competitive show of things by rolling their substitutes in and out of the Collegiate ranks. Many thanks to their lads for being such good sports and for giving no quarter to their team-mates.

We started badly, conceding two tries in the first ten minutes, but to be fair to the lads we’d not had much of a warm up (my burst tyre and Coach Lloyd’s satnav didn’t help). Thankfully the second Rossendale try was the “kick in the unmentionables” needed and straight from the restart we adopted our familiar gameplan as the forwards dominated phase after phase after phase. The ‘Mad-Dog-Turnover-Competition’ was in full swing with Kyle, Lewis and Gilbo making mincemeat of their opponents in the close contact and Luke, Jake, Joel and Danny setting up solid platforms for Owen to attempt to bring the backs into play. Jamie kicked out of hand intelligently and (apart from one noticeable exception!) accurately. All of a sudden we were on top and that was pretty much how it stayed until half time.

Second half started well and the pattern of forward domination was quickly re-established. Paul M set off on a blistering break and nearly made the line, only to be stopped by an excellent tackle by one of the Rossendale backs. Eventually our pressure paid off, leading to a try for Collegiate as Liam powered over in the corner for his second try of the season (much to his proud fathers enjoyment). Conversion by Jamie was narrowly missed, straight as you like but just not enough legs to get over from the touchline.

And then…. we erm…. to a man… just stopped, had a look around at the picture postcard surroundings, took in the fresh air and enjoyed the sun, allowing Rossendale to score enough points to make me lose count and feel too embarrassed to ask the referee how many we’d lost by. Not acceptable lads. We play every minute from start to finish and we mustn’t allow our heads to go down or our standards to drop like that again. Credit to Rossendale, their centre absolutely tore us apart in the closing stages. A lesson was learnt regarding playing to the whistle as their scrum half cheekily skipped past our entire team (who were expecting the collapsed scrum to be reformed). Wake up next time fellas. Whether there is a whistle or not, never allow the ball to cross our line unopposed! Basics basics basics.

Ignoring the last 15 minutes there were plenty of positives to be taken from the game. Tom G responded well to some boisterous but constructive criticism and his tackling in open play was excellent in the first half. Luke led the pack with grit and determination but one player was (literally) head and shoulders above the rest and so Man Of The Match went to our very own Steve Borthwick lookalike from Dingley Dell: Jake N. Well played Jake.

The Rossendale coaching staff were particularly complementary about our pack, who gave the Rossendale forwards their “toughest game of the season”. This is great to hear and testament to a lot of hard work at training. Well done. We must now look improve upon bringing the backs into the game from the platforms the forwards are creating. We may well benefit from some sprint training too!

And finally, this weeks “3 Amigos” award goes to Gilbo who once again tested our £16.99 Boots First Aid Kit to the limit (we have applied for a Lottery Commission Grant to see if we can get you a suit of armour for next season). However, the bad news is that this time he wasn’t exaggerating the extent of his injuries and a fractured collarbone was his reward for some excellent direct running into the biggest forwards he could find (try running round them next time). Get well soon Gilbo.

Next match: Leigh versus Liverpool Collegiate 28th March (meet at the club 9.15am, shirts and ties for players, lifts needed).

DB