Grunt n Grind

Bees U15s V Old Saltleians

Conditions were sunny and perfect for running rugby, as Bees kicked off to Salts following the customary 2 minutes Armistice Day silence.

Good pressure from Ethan and the forwards caused the opposition to spill the ball from the kick off, which was picked up by Cam making first full time debut on the wing. Cam took the ball into contact where it was recycled quickly enabling scrum half Joe Rogers to throw an outrageous dummy before cantering over from 15 yards out.

From the restart the ball cannoned off one of the forwards but the situation was recovered by Aaron who plucked the ball out of the air and set off on determined mazy run which saw him outstripping the Salts players for pace to score a great individual try from 70 metres out.

5 minutes gone and two scores up, the boys began to move the ball with more confidence on the wide pitch.

A blind side move from a scrum saw Joe R feed Alex coming straight onto the ball enabling him to break a number of tackles and crash over.

Shortly afterwards the ball was moved to Cam who following a strong run successfully offloaded the ball to Elliot whose fine support running was rewarded with an excellent try.

The boys were well on top by this stage at which point Kody decided to give a centre master class scoring 3 super tries, cutting through the flagging Salts defence with ease, taking us up to half time.

After such a dominant display in the first half, the second half was an opportunity to explore options and positional combinations.

It started pretty much as the first with more, strong running by Cam who created fast ball and slick handling enabled Sam to make his way over on the far side.

Some solid lineout work helped create a platform for two further scores, with quick ball of the top moved quickly through the hands, creating space for the flying Finn to cross over to score. Shortly afterwards good variation in play saw James peel off and crash over from an excellent driving lineout maul.

As the end neared Salts came back into the game in phases however the boys stuck to their task and Mac rounded of an excellent performance in the centres, by crashing over in the corner.

Proceedings came to a halt shortly thereafter with Alex taking another direct line from a 5 yards scrum to crash over for his second score of the afternoon, to cap off a fine team performance scoring 66 points against a spirited Salts side who competed throughout.

Special mentions to Will Jeynes showing his versatility in making his debut for the club playing in the front and second row; and to the formidable returning duo of Hamza and Ben who carried the ball strongly throughout. Also credit to all the boys for keeping a clean sheet.

It was not easy to single one individual out as the Man of the Match - however Elliot impressed not only with his score, but also with his overall work rate ripping the ball in the tight and particular with his ability to transfer the skills from Tuesday night training onto the pitch; dropping expertly on the ball securing possession on a number of occasions.

Areas for improvement – A super team performance - however our handling needs to be more accurate and our body positions and rucking need to be more dynamic if we are going to keep improving.