The Primrose match was a good test for the u16A team as I feel we may have under estimated them somewhat. The plan was for us to keep the ball tight with the forwards and grind them down so that eventually the ball could be spread wide, however what we did not take into account was the way the Primrose boys did not stand back easily. This I feel shocked the boys a bit and as such did not take control of the match the way they expected to. I think credit must go to Primrose as they were not a rag tag team by any stretch of the imagination, they were well drilled and knew what to do on attack and tackled well.
Where I feel we let ourselves down was the exploitation of space, there were gaps in the Primrose defence and we did not attack them well enough, while our overall execution on attack was lacking precision.
The theme this past week was to start expanding the players attacking abilities, making their own decisions, flair it up a bit and play without fear of failure on attack. This may have contributed to some players not committing themselves enough in the tight phases as is expected, but that is what happens when you encourage u16’s to flair it up, they want to do it every time without first earning the right!
Our first try was scored through some brilliant play by our Flyhalf, Shane Fourie who kicked well into space, followed up by a good chase by Richard Rodgers who tackled the primrose wing into touch. The forwards then did their part and mauled extremely well for 20mtrs to score through flank Justin Joubert.
The 2nd try was scored through a quick tap by our livewire scrumhalf, Keagan Wheeler, who played a very good tactical game. Jason Labuschagne finished off the move in the corner to ensure we went into the half 10 nil up.
The 2nd half was highly frustrating and poor by this team’s standard. They ebbed and flowed on attack, hardly making any significant ground to cause any defensive problems that we could exploit. When the defensive errors did come and opportunities arose, the boys failed to exploit them; this was highly frustrating as it is a theme we as coaches are working extremely hard on.
The final try was scored in the last movement of the game from a Primrose scrum on their 5mtr line, Keagan made the turnover and offloaded to replacement eighth-man, Devon Barnard who set up the breakdown, from that quick ball was won and passed to Shane Fourie who gave an exceptional flat pass to Richard Rodgers who finished superbly to round off a hard fought victory.
Although the boys did not set the field alight they did well to execute certain new tactics with some success. This was pleasing to see, but more execution is needed to ensure this team plays the type of rugby they know they are capable of.
Special mention must be made of James Ambler smith who made his début at 8th man and performed admirably at the breakdown and did what was expected of him. It is pleasing to see that guys who were not in the reckoning at the start of the year are forcing their way into the side by their performances in the B team. This presents a nice selection ‘problem’ if it were, while the incumbent A team players will now have to watch their backs a lot more closely from now on.
The final game of the term is against Wynberg who are going into the game on a high after performing well this year so far. It will be a closely fought game and should a classic clash of note!