Warriors Match report - Dorking Festival

Warriors
Noah B
Zach, Malachi, Finn L, Max L, Harry, Ernest, Sam P, Louis, Matthew

The Dorking festival is always one of the highlights of the season. Lots of teams we don't normally face and a great barometer of our progress as a squad (and coaching team)! The rugby on display was of an excellent standard. I refereed and observed some thrilling games of rugby and it was great to see how much our boys have progressed in this first season of contact rugby.

Tonbridge Juddians
Sutton and Epsom
Esher
Warlingham

The majority of boys enjoyed a good warm up against the vampires and we were first up in the group at 10am against a huge physical Tonbridge side. We were caught cold! Two scores down within a matter of minutes mainly due to a poor defensive line where some players were hanging back leaving holes for Tonbridge to run through us. The Tonbridge side were fast, strong and aggressive and we quite simply couldn't cope and a few heads dropped after some aggressive play. A half time team talk reorganised the defence and we played much better in the second half although Tonbridge ran away deserved winners with strong tackles from their entire team. We simply could not break them down. We need to work on passing before contact avoiding the tackle. Boys arriving late and not being warmed up was possibly a contributing factor in this defeat.

A regroup and team talk followed. We agreed to maintain our lines and tackle in pairs using the pace of Lewis and Noah to attack the corners.

Next up were Sutton and Epsom and we started strong. It struck me again that our team is not physically large compared to some opposition but we are strong and determined. Max, Sam and Zach made crunching tackles forcing turnovers into touch or handling errors. Ernest was playing scrum half and we started to pass the ball before contact and suddenly gaps were appearing all over the pitch. Finn, Louis and Noah scoring great trys. Great to see Malachi back in the team making some good tackles and grabbing himself a try after his break with an ankle problem. Sutton and Epsom were a good test lots of tackling and seven tackle turnovers The game was ultimately decided by our solid tackling and forcing them into errors where we capitalized on our position. A good bounce back after the first game defeat.
4-3 win

Smiles on faces returned after the win and next up were Esher. We spoke again about passing before contact and maintaining our defensive line. This game saw us play a lot more flowing passing rugby. We moved to three subs every three minutes for the final two games to give every player as much time on the pitch as possible. Harry and Matthew making good runs and offloading at the right time. Our tackling was strong Max, Finn, Sam, Malachi, Louis and Zach all creating a wall for Esher. Matthew made a great weaving run ducking under several tackles creating space for a score.

Zach smashing through 3 Esher players just after half way following a great pass from Ernest to smash down a try. His aeroplane celebration clearly had the boys day dreaming as we conceded within 5 seconds of the restart. Louis wasn't having any of it and immediately put us back ahead with a blistering run to the corner after evading several players. Finn sealed the win with probably our best try of the tournament. 6 phases of tackles we battled hard and Malachi finished inches from the try line. A quick pass and Finn battled his way through a wall of Esher players to smash down a well deserved try for his efforts. Full time 4-2 win.

Our last game was a local derby against Warlingham. We wanted to end the day on a high and having refereed Warlingham's previous game against Reigate I was confident. This was a good game for Whits. We had to work hard for our scores and be strong in the tackle. We were warned for rushing the Warlingham attack on a couple of occasions such was our desperation to get the ball back.

Warlingham had clearly had a good talking to after their game against Reigate and they were aggressive in the tackle. They also seemed to have acquired a tall athletic player who did not play in their previous game against Reigate. He was strong in the tackle, very quick and scored 2 trys hunting the gaps in our defensive wall. It was very end to end but the boys were not giving up. 2-1 at half time.

Noah was playing well on the wing and grabbed a great try in the corner after deceiving the oppo defence with brilliant evasive footwork. Harry played another blinder and is one of our unsung heros. He constantly works hard and added another one of his decoy runs confusing the Warlingham defence. We conceded another try to Warlingham after a sleepy moment in defence allowed them through. Zach Louis and Max reentered the fray for the final 2 minutes to shore up the defence with the game tied at 4-4. Lots of tackling ensued and we somehow scrambled the ball to Louis on the half way line. He needed no invitation and headed for the corner at full speed. 5-4 win.

Max L was captain for the day and led by example. Tremendous tackles and was rewarded with a couple of great trys.

Harry made some great runs and got stuck in with some tackles. Needs to help the defence to tackle in pairs and eliminate the danger quickly. Get your feet close to the man in the tackle. Ring of steel using the arms and the chest put them on the ground.

Zachary and Finn L leading the defence in the middle of the park. Not much was getting past these two. Both aggressive going forwards head down and charge. Both scored well deserved trys.

Sam P solid in the tackle needs to help his teammates when they are tackling. Work on being quick out of the blocks when receiving the ball.

Matthew played well at scrum half with good distribution and made some great runs finding space that wasn't really there. Help your teammates in the tackle. Work in pairs.

Ernest good distribution playing scrum half and solid in the tackle. Ernest always battles forward and gains good ground for his team.

Noah BM excellent on the wing, good evasion, great footwork and made a couple of try saving tackles.

Louis solid performance in all areas. Excellent going forward. Work on getting your feet closer to the man with the ball in the tackle. If you are close to the oppo in their space you will win every tackle.

Malachi aggressive in defence gave the opposition no time to move.
Great to see Malachi back in the team. Solid in defence and powerful going forward.

We all need to work on passing before contact avoiding the tackle.
A 12 minute game requires 12 minutes consistent focus. 3-4 of the trys we conceded were needless if we concentrated on our defensive line.
Parents please arrive well in advance of the advertised start time. Players need a solid warm up and a warm up game to get them up to match speed / give and take a few tackles. This is for safety reasons and so we don't have a slow start in the first game.

A great performance from the Warriors today they should be very proud of their achievements!

Vampires - Dorking Festival

‘Come back with your shield or on it………..’

The ancient Greeks would send their hoplites off to war saying ‘come back with your shield or on it’ meaning that they should come back with their shield having fought bravely or on their shield dead - rather than throwing the shield away as they ran to save their lives. On Sunday we had the Under 9s equivalent of ‘with your shield or on it’ as the Vampire’s played at the high quality Dorking Festival.

Our opposition for the day was Dorking, Chipstead, Sutton and Epsom and Farnham (in that order). This is one of the very big Surrey Festivals with 2,500 attendees and as a result no one sends a weak team.

The first match was against a big Dorking Team who had an absolute blond monster in their side. However the players had done a nice tackling warm up and knew their roles for the first game and understood that we would be focusing on defending in pairs and in a line, one step back from the tackle. We started well with a quick try and then another before Dorking replied with a hard won try. And then the fun began as we began to defend like a team. We tackled the runner, we moved back one step and we spread the defensive line before moving up for the tackle. However, we did not just do that once but again and again and again. And we did have to make an awful lot more tackles that we should have because we made a number of mistakes born of ambition in attack as we looked for ‘Hollywood’ killer 10m and 20m passes to unlock the Dorking defence but instead gave the ball away cheaply. We ran out 4-3 winners with highlights being the defence from everyone, the passing from Seb at the tackle, Michel’s focus in making tackle after tackle, Mr Banwell’s running to score one of his length of the field specials and really strong running from Thomas K and Adam - who also made a couple of really nice textbook tackles.

The second match was against Sutton and Epsom, one of Surrey’s top two or three clubs. We took the field Captained by Alessandro again and we introduced Sutton and Epsom to blitzkrieg Rugby as we absolutely battered them in the first half to earn a 3-0 half time lead. The second half was tougher but we added a further 3 tries to run out 6-2 winners. Highlights were Sam Hearns straight running impression of a snowplough, Alessandro’s try, Will Letchford’s work rate in making more tackles than any other two players in this game, James B’s first front up tackle, the crunching wrap tackles from Christian and the organisation of the defence from Thomas K and Alfie. This was particularly pleasing win as I noted that every player made tackles that I did not expect them to make.

Next up were Chipstead who did not enjoy the new brand of Vampire blitzkrieg Rugby as we tackled them to a standstill. Seb and Will’s passing was good and both made a couple of really nice runs. Charles scored two lovely tries with well angled runs through the defence and locked down his wing in the style of Marshal Petain at Verdun- ‘Ils ne passeront pas!’. Chipstead often found themselves losing ground after each pass from the tackle as our defence was up on them so fast – take a bow Michel, Seb, Alessandro, Charles and Will who were awesome in defence. Christian also finally ran into space and did a passing impression of the unstoppable object as he crashed through despairing tackles to score. Thomas and Alfie also had a couple of nice tries from mazy runs into gaps between defenders. We won by a lot.

Finally, we had Farnham, another strong club, but again they had no answer for our defence with Sam at one point making three tackles in a row that left the attackers 20m further back than they had started. We began to bench our own players for running with one hand on the ball and after one of Alfie’s twisty mazy runs that left the opponents defence. and probably their intestines, twisted like spaghetti, where he scored an amazing one handed carry try we benched him too.

This Festival was the first time we had no passengers in defence because everyone made tackles. We defended so well and the pressure we put on the other team led to lots of turnovers from 7th tackles, dropped passes, knock ons, passes to the floor and running into touch. The Vampires must have been a truly horrible team to play against and I am sure will feature in the Chipstead and Sutton/Epsom players nightmares for months to come.

The serious positives from the day were:

· We defended like a team with - lines, communication, realigning after the tackle and everything you could dream of in defence
· We had only one potential high tackle from the team and one player step into touch in four games – you both know who you are!
· The line speed in defence – Michel, Alessandro, Sam, Alfie and Will especially
· The wingers not letting anyone past without at least one tackle being made – this is crucial to how we play so BIG thanks to Charles and Christian

However, despite all the serious positives we still have work to do on:

1. Getting our new found defensive line to come up all together at the same time
2. Being less ambitious in our passing from the break down
3. Passing the ball before we are tackled to players outside the runner who are better placed to score
4. Two hands on the ball when we are running so we do not get called for fending

The player of the day awards could have gone to any one of a herd of players

Adam – solid tackles and lovely direct running
Sam – work rate, tackle count, direct running were all excellent
Christian – massive tackles (especially when we were in trouble, great running (look for space more big guy!) – our scariest player for the opposition
Alessandro – running tackling and passing were all top notch and should be well pleased with his day
Charles – lovely running, great tackling, super tries but needs to go looking for the ball when we are attacking more – has the potential to be an awesome player
Thomas K – Generalissimo Karelis, bosses the defence, looked for the best pass, was a reliable last line of defence and a superb runner
Sam H - Was monstrous today in attack and defence. Against his friends who play for Chipstead he was a one man army and left his friends trampled in his wake to a soundtrack of oof! ouch! and Ow!
Alfie – finds gaps where there aren’t any, fearless in defence and helps organise the defence – needs to get involved more to truly unleash his inner beast to best effect
James – Has been out for a while due to appendywhatsits but came back strong today. Great runs and tries (which we know he can do) but also now great tackles – top man
Michel – Delivering real nuisance value, work rate and tackle count today alongside some nice runs. He was one of the main reasons opposition attacks could just not get going
Seb – no attack can work without quick ball from the tackle and ours was very quick meaning the opposition defence was never quite right – the main reason was Seb – good running and tackling too

However, player of the day goes to the player with the highest work rate, he tackled and the got up and did it again so much it was like having two of him. He also tidied up so much loose ball, ran staright and stepped in to pass when first there. That player is Will.