Daventry
ALL Black Juniors
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB

 Under 10’s V’s Leighton Buzzard 

Daventry under 10’s travelled away for the third week in a row today to play Leighton Buzzard. The ground was waterlogged and the driving rain and wind made conditions difficult. 

The team tactics were adjusted to reflect the conditions and the aim was to play a tighter more controlled game today. 

The Raiders took to the field and the weather took a turn for the worse. Daventry won the toss and elected to run the ball straight up the middle of the park setting up their familiar ruck ball. William moved the ball to the backs and we started our first attack, this quickly ended when we tried a long pass that our winger could not gather. Leighton Buzzard were a strong team and rocked us in the opening scrum and attempted to move the ball wide spilling it out wide in the wet conditions.

Daventry took control and got the forwards of Elliott, Kibb and Joe driving forward and setting up ruck ball for William to move to Dawson. Dawson playing well today moved the ball out through the new centre pairing of Rhys and Kieran (Sam away this week) t o Angus on the wing. The passing becamce shorter and Daventry made good ground before Kieran crossed for the opening try in the corner. Daventry went up a gear then and controlled the ball and the game very well. Leighton Buzzard not get their hands on the ball and Daventry had a scrum 8 metres out. The forwards put in a mighty push and William gathered the ball and weaved his way over for a 0 -10 lead at half time.

Thomas replaced Joe who had worked hard and to add strength to the scrum and contact area. Daventry lost their concentration and Leighton Buzzard scored after some fine handling in poor conditions.

How would Daventry respond was the question on the lips of all the loyal followers. The forwards battled hard and the backs tackled well with Kibb and Rhys showing well. William continually pass quick ball to the explosive back line. The the break through came when Dawson crossed the line to take a 10 – 15 lead.

The remaining 2 minutes showed the strength of the team spirit with a fantastic display of tackling and defensive communications.

Daventry ran out winners of a great contest, and credit must go the the Leighton Buzzard coach who stood in and refereed the game, he was outstanding.

Then the Gladiators took to the field a little short of players this week so some of the Raiders volunteered to play again. The Gladiators captained by Seb and led by scrum half Alex started to play. The weather changed to torrential driving rain making conditions very difficult. Leighton Buzzard coped better and started to move ball wide and opened up our defence running in three quick tries. The Raiders forwards of Robert, Elliott and Sam battled hard, with Robert putting in some fine tackles in defence, Robert showed well in the loose today making some impressive runs.

Alex playing at scrum half had a solid reliable game showing excellent handling skills. Seb played well along with Jordan on the wing and it was a good team performance with all players having personnal best’s today.

Then came the break through for Daventry when after some good phases of play Dawson took a pass of William and drove over to score.

Leighton Buzzard ran out winners 30 – 5. 

The supporters (mums and dads) we fantastic today encouraging the players on and getting soaked in the process, thank you.

The awards proved difficult today as all players deserved to win today, but after much debate it was settled. 

The coaches player of the day was Jordan for his solid performance on the wing this week back up my last weeks performance. Jordan has worked hard in training and is developing into an effective winger.

The player of the day was a difficult as Dawson, Angus, Kieran, William, Elliott, Kibb and Rhys were all in the reckoning. It was awarded to Alex for his fine display of handling today for the Raiders at scrum half. Congratulations to both Alex and Jordan. Today was the first time that both awards had gone to players in the Gladiators. 

Next week we travel to Old Northamptonians who will prove a sterner test, one which we hope the players will rise to.