Bury St Edmunds vs BSRFC

The Coaches, Players and Supporters from Bury were all very welcoming and an enjoyable series of matches ensued.

Tornadoes
Keen to follow on their stellar form from last week’s matches the Tornadoes quickly adapted to the smaller pitches, with all the players putting in a great effort in defending and attack. Once again the lads were not turned over through the 7 tag rule and used their direct running abilities and fast pace of play to make holes in the oppositions lines. Man of the Match was awarded to Murray Davidson for the selfless play he displayed and set up countless tries by committing defenders before passing the ball.
Won 6:4, Won 5:3, Won 6:1

Hurricanes
Whilst not trying to make excuses we hadn’t counted on the size of the Bury pitches. With the width being a lot narrower than the size we are used to, we were forced to adapt our natural free running game to one of crashing through the gain line and off loading in the tackle. Whilst both teams were playing under the same conditions, the Bury players were obviously used to this style of play, so although they struggled to get around us, they scored a number of tries by forcing their way through the middle. We could quite easily have won all three games, if we’d have tried the same tactic, but we couldn’t suppress our natural urge to run and pass out wide. Overall, we can take some positives away from the matches, but we have learnt that we need to adapt to the conditions on the day. Man of the Match was Max Smith.
Lost 4:6, Lost 5:7, Drew 5:5

Typhoons
With a number of forced changes from last week, the players carried on with a similar focus, working hard for each other in a great team spirit. Again, we found the playing conditions not to be best suited to us and Bury were able to smother us with their defence. Having said that, Bury were playing with Mixed Ability Teams and were relying on the 2 or 3 ‘better’ and larger players in each team to do all the work in attack. Our players can feel proud of themselves that they weren’t beaten by higher scores and indeed managed a draw. Man of the Match was Jonathan Bird
Lost 7:5, Drew 4:4, Lost 8:5

Harriers
The Harriers encountered the same problems as the Hurricanes and Typhoons. Narrow pitches and the same miss match in opposition. Again, we carried on from where we left off against Chelmsford. The players fought well for each other, and there was some superb supporting play in attack, leading to very exciting, close matches. Man of the Match was Calum Reed.
Lost 4:3, Lost 5:4, Lost 6:5

This was our last scheduled match and we either have training or Festivals for the rest of the season. Whilst it was unfortunate that Bury chose to play Mixed Ability Teams, it does reinforce our decision to play Streamed Teams. They relied on 2 or 3 players in each team, leaving the rest of the players as supporting roles. Whilst this gives them wins against weaker teams, they then lose against the stronger Streamed Teams. We prefer to play the kids in teams of equal ability against teams of equal ability, giving each player the same amount of time with the ball. Our results against Chelmsford last week showed that against Streamed Teams our players are more than capable of producing great rugby and deserving score lines, so things are looking very good for the next few weeks. One more thing to reflect on about last weeks results, Chelmsford are the current Essex County Champions and that speaks volumes about their standards. Come on Stortford, let’s show them how far we’ve progressed since last season.