A beautiful Sunday afternoon in the shadow of the Abbey saw the Colts take on Tewkesbury in the latest round of the Development League. We haven’t played them recently, but the form book suggested that they were very capable, and we’d need to be on our game. That’s pretty much how it turned out.

A distinct lack of match official prior to kick off resulted in an emergency referee fill in but we got the game underway nevertheless. I expect his hamstrings will recover eventually.

Thanks to our plentiful numbers, we’d picked a mixed ability squad of 28, giving game time to a few boys who’d been a bit short of minutes for one reason or another and we were confident we could put on a good show. Sadly, Tewkesbury felt they lacked sufficient front row resources to compete safely, so scrums were uncontested throughout. This is always a shame as it removes a crucial element of the game and we’d picked some beasts in the pack. Still, safety is paramount and we couldn’t really ague.

From kick-off it was obvious that both teams wanted to run and move the ball. The sun was shining, the pitch was firm – that suited us just fine. Game on.

An early infringement for holding on at the tackle gave Tewkesbury a penalty and they chose to kick at goal from just outside the 22. A nice strike and they lead 3-0.

Things were competitive at the breakdown and, initially, we didn’t invest enough players in the ruck getting turned over on a few occasions. Our line speed and first-up tackling however were good and we were able to get a fair amount of possession using our big lads to punch holes. Conor and Luke being prominent with carries and skipper Ollie making good ground too. Unfortunately, he had to leave the field after a painful ankle injury meant he couldn’t continue.

Eventually, we got ball close to their line and after a couple of charges were rebuffed from the pack, Tristan ran a hard line off a ruck and smashed his way through to score. 3-5

More sustained pressure saw Max, an energy-filled irritation at open side, appear at close quarters to scoop up a loose ball and drive over for our second. 3-10

Ethan had a short but impactful cameo to lend some go-forward to the pack and give him a run out with his mates toward the end of the first half. His physicality and game-intelligence were obvious from the outset and we were able to comfortably hold out till half time with our lead intact.

Our plentiful replacements were shuffled on and off throughout the match giving us fresh legs and, as the opposition tired, we had a little more room to move the ball wide. A promising backs move saw Ollie D hauled down inside the 22 but a quick ruck and some excellent vision saw Barney H-S snipe rapidly down the blind side beating the cover to the corner. 3-15.

Our defence, and particularly our tackling continued to be effective with several boys showing their metal. Finn made several tackles in a physical performance and Danny E was prominent in the lineout and carrying ball. Chong, on debut, was lively and committed and the whole pack worked hard in support of our runners. Angus, replacing  the omnipresent Max, continued in similar fashion making tackles, carrying with intent and turning over their ball.

One area we did struggle was the maul after lineouts where we allowed Tewkesbury the opportunity to get hands on our ball and turn us over. Something to work on…….

Our back line were starting to find their fluency, having been a bit disjointed due to the novelty of their combination, and as the second half lengthened, we moved the ball at pace through the hands. Wide out on the right was Jo W and he needed no prompting to race round under the posts having been put clear. Tristan slotted the extras and we had our bonus point too. 3-22 with not long left.

Despite Tewkesbury’s frantic attempts to get a compensatory score, the defensive effort was sufficient to hold out and it finished with no further tries. An excellent match played, for the most part, in good spirit. We maintain our unbeaten record and look forward to the visit of Matson next weekend.

Allez les Pats!

Tom Perris