After some un-seasonally hot training sessions in early September, Old Pats U11s made their way to Stratford Upon Avon for their first fixture of the season.

We took one squad of 13 boys who were tasked with taking on Stratford in three twenty-minute back-to-back fixtures.

Conditions were damp and the ball greasy after heavy overnight rain, but the boys looked sharp during their warm-up handling drills. Would the three weeks of intensive training pay dividends?!

Come kick-off for match one, it was clear that the boys were very much up for the battle, Old Pats looking particularly sharp at the breakdown, securing their own attacking ball quickly and even managing to steal a few whilst in defence.

As a spectator, I could hear the Stratford coaches yelling ‘You need to be faster to the rucks!’. Old Pats were clearly making an impact in this aspect of the game.

With minutes remaining in match 1 and with the score locked at one try a piece, inexplicably Old Pats started to kick the ball long when they had looked decent with the ball in hand.

They were now inviting wave after wave of attack and when they kicked the ball long for the fourth time, I must admit to letting out a rather large groan from the sidelines. Clearly, the kicker had a vision which I did not possess.

Stratford didn’t have numbers covering the backfield and the ball bounced kindly, the Old Pats winger chased like a whippet, gathering the ball, but he still had some work to do and although eventually pulled down close to the line great support play from Old Pats allowed him an easy offload. 2-1 to Pats and this proved to be the decisive blow in match 1.

Emboldened by their recent success from the boot the kicks came thick and fast from the Old Pats team in match 2 as they consistently kicked away possession of the ball, a tactic that ultimately backfired. Stratford were catching the ball in space and strong running from some big strong lads resulted in Stratford running in 3 tries to Old Pats 0 in the second match. A valuable lesson learnt about retaining hard-earned possession for these young players.

Reprimanded sufficiently for their profligate use of the ball, Pats returned to their usual style of running and offloading and they were much improved in match 3.

With the game delicately poised at 2 tries each it was Stratford that found themselves under pressure with Pats camped on the 5-metre line in the dying moments.

After turning over possession Stratford kicked long in an attempt to relieve some pressure, fortunately for Pats the ball was gathered by one of our very speedy players who very nearly finished from deep.

Dragged down near the line, he managed to pop the ball up off the deck and the gathering player flopped over the line to seal the win in this closely contested match. The boys fought hard in the final match, and they should be very proud of their morning’s work.

Finally, a massive thank you to Stratford for their hospitality, they are clearly a vibrant and well-run rugby club and we all thoroughly enjoyed the fixture.

Olli Williams