Llandaff North U7 & 8’s Match Report 14.04.14
Match 1 = Llandaff North U7 4 – 2 Whitchurch U7
Match 2 = Llandaff North U8 5 – 4 Whitchurch U8
Match 3 = Llandaff North U8 4 – 5 Old Pens U8
The 14th April was a bright sunny morning that saw a combined U7 and U8 team of 10 Llandaff North Hornets step up for yet another local derby. When we arrived we also found out that Whitchurch had invited Old Penarthians down as well so “would we be OK to play three games?” they asked – “Bring it on” we replied.
First up was our U7 team who
dominated the whole game, not only in terms of tries but also with fantastic displays of tagging, side-stepping and supportive play. First to cross the line for us was Finlay Britton, captain for this match, who successfully ran almost the entire length of the pitch side stepping and twisting and turning his way out of the grabbing hands of the Whitchurch defence for a brilliant try! After Whitchurch managed to get one try past us the whole team upped their defensive game, again special mention has to go to Isaac Richards who decided to build on his fantastic tagging performances in previous games and make a real nuisance of himself to the Whitchurch offense. Freddie Blackmore also demonstrated some really strong tagging skills and showed the extremely excitable crowd what he could do with ball in (both) hands crossing the line for the Hornets second try. Tom Woods offered some brilliant options with his supportive play and was able to score the Norths third try. Fraser Britton’s support to his teammates was exceptional this week and this coupled with some sidestepping to rival his brother saw him score our fourth try. Special mention also goes to Sophie Southgate who exhibited some awesome passing skills, obviously been paying attention in training!
After dispatching the Whitchurch U7s our Hornets set their sights on the U8s. Whitchurch were obviously feeling quite confident, setting out cones for one of the biggest pitches we’ve ever played on. And given that Whitchurch walked away from our previous encounter early in the season as the victors, why shouldn’t they fancy themselves for this match?! Well they soon found out that they would have to play out of their skins to completely out play our Hornets. Tom Woods crossed the line twice in this game, obviously having used the U7s match as a warm up. Despite some fantastic running and tagging, especially from Niall Moore (and we expect no less from our demon tagger), Fraser Britton and Freddie Blackmore again, we went into half time two tries a piece. The second half saw Caleb Richards put himself on the score board not once but twice! Caleb is a new signing to the Hornets joining us in early March this year, and clearly the Whitchurch side were unprepared for his pace! Even with some real running and passing skills displayed by Isaac Richards and Ed Maguire in particular, we were minutes away from the final whistle with the score standing at 4 tries each. Cue Dan McCallum, captain for the match, to capitalise on the incredible Hornets performance and team work. After receiving a sterling pass from Isaac he crossed the line to finish the game 5 – 4 in our favour.
After two such exciting games the crowd was exhausted, the adrenaline from all the shouting and jumping up and down was fading and so were we. We feared the same for our intrepid players, but no they were all still bursting with energy. So we stepped up to our third game against Old Penarthians. As most of our players are actually playing up an age group we are used to having to look up into the faces of our opposition, however one of the Old Pens players really took the biscuit looking to me that he was at least 6 foot tall (however measurement by eye has never been my strong point). As the game started it became clear that the Old Pens had pretty much one game plan, pass to the tall kid and let him run in a try. Given the length of this boys legs we were impressed that we kept them down to three tries in the first half. However, their defensive game plan was not quite so structured and both Isaac Richards and Tom Woods (and yes folks that does see Tom scoring in all three games) crossed the line to make the score 3 – 2 to them at half time. After a half time strategic talk from the coaches we decided to target their key player (no surprises he wasn’t one of their players substituted at half time) with a blitz defence whenever he had the ball and this plan worked well fairly well, keeping their score down to two tries in the second half. We also scored twice, both Freddie Blackmore and Sophie Southgate crossing the line seeing us draw the second half. However the extra try in the first half saw Old Pens win this game. And although I am reliably informed that Caleb Richards, captain for the match, did tag one of their players before he crossed the line and that the referee decided to play “advantage” to them (meaning the game should really have ended a draw) we are not going to quibble due to exceptional team work and spirit showed ☺.
Both coaches, Dominic Scoble and Hywel James, are incredibly proud of their team and the fantastic support they are given from friends and family on the touch line. And clearly all the team are proud to play for Llandaff North with Niall Moore commenting after the match that his black dog, who came down to support, just needs amber stripes to complete his supporters kit! Player of the day went to Tom Woods.
Leave a Reply