Bishop's Stortford U13 A v Rosslyn Park

With the sun still shining ,it was our chance to host our first youth home game ,the conditions where perfect and we were set for an entertaining game .

Rosslyn Park looked a well drilled outfit ,while they quietly went about their game preparation with a professional attitude. It was a late KO , so the tension & nerves had obviously built up for both players & parents .

The game was started by BS and the lads where up quickly and mixing it well with a Physical RP team .

After numerous rucks we managed to get the ball flowing down the line and game away with a great try placed in the corner by the Stortford winger .

They were quickly to strike back ,showing great ball handling and strength across the pitch .It was not long before we had worked our way back up the pitch to be within 5 yards of their line ,we were well organized and The Stortford 10 just managed to reach out from a tackle to nudge the ball over the line .

We had the upper hand ,however you sensed they would not give up .

There was a lot storming runs by our forwards and the odd break from Dom A & harry in mid field ,however the next three tries game from them ,using their strong winger and agile full back ,they supported their players extremely well making some great off loads during the tackle .

It was around this time ,we initially lost Murry D ,who was distraught!! to have received a heavy knock to his right wrist ,shortly followed by the Brave Dom R who had become isolated up front & took a knock to the head whilst tussling with four RS players .

Half Time game & the Coached delivered their motivational speeches ,highlighting where the lads could improve, although re-energized the physical game had some further casualties ,in both Ryan & Eddie E ,who were typically making some important brave tackles .

The lads battled hard & emotions ran high ,however in the last quarter we really looked dangerous ,creating many chances ,with patience came our third and fourth try.

RP had picked up a couple of knocks & injuries by now & we were really taking it to them ,with Carne , Aston & Aiden trucking it up the middle and harry distributing it well to Tom who came very close several times .

On the whole it was a very entertaining game with fantastic performances from ALL our lads ,I could detect that on the whole the Coaches were very pleased & looking forward to a couple of training sessions ,where they can work on what we have gleaned from the first few games .

Nick Racey