U14s win Cup Match 58-7

The U14s played a great match on 25th February, to beat Weymouth & Portland 58-7.

The match deserved a long commentary from Hans, lead coach: 

With beautiful sunshine thawing the frosty ground just in time for kick off, Salisbury U14s hosted Weymouth and Portland for the fourth match of the Dorset & Wilts competition. There was a brisk cross field breeze and Salisbury played the first half uphill on the Eiger. Salisbury threatened from the kick off when Thomas popped a short ball to Byron who ran round the outside towards the try line, handing off defenders before being bundled into touch. The ball went loose from the line-out and Alex dived on it to form a secure ruck and Harry dug the ball out and moved it quickly wide, only for it to be knocked on. However the opposition had been offside and Salisbury decided to try for the points, which Byron slotted over despite the cross wind. The opposition regained the ball from their own kick off but Salisbury pressure caused a knock on and from a dominant scrum the ball went wide through Seb, Callum Kealey, Max Woodhouse to Byron who ran it in under the posts, and then converted the try.  After a period of W&P possession a Salisbury line-out on the right led to the ball going through the hands out to Fraser Doig on the left wing who made good ground towards the left corner flag but defenders scrambled to block him. He popped it back inside and Byron launched a beautifully weighted cross field kick for Leo, who had kept his width, to speed onto it and touch it down.

After some great forward interplay between Billy, Thomas, Dylan and Alex the ball went wide left again through Byron to Fraser Doig, but again cover was there and there was a foot in touch. Fraser O’Grady and Byron both cleared up loose ball by diving on it and presenting – great to see – and from there Dylan got going on one of his trademark runs through heavy traffic, and after 30m the clean ruck ball went out to Byron who ghosted through a gap and scored. Bullocking runs by Ryan and Billy made good ground. Shortly afterwards, Callum K ran a great decoy line off Seb, which fixed the defence and the ball went through Byron to Fraser D again. Very encouraging to see the ball reaching the winger so many times. The half ended 22:0.

All the Salisbury subs came on in the second half but W&P had no bench at all and knew playing uphill on the Eiger without any fresh legs was going to be a struggle. The second half started with a long kick into space and a good chase by Danny to close down the counter attack. Good work by Edward, Bertie and the other forwards turned the ball over for Max to provide quick ball to the back line – where it went Seb, Callum K, Will, Byron then Sam, who was stopped just short of the line. Will was in close support and sealed off, for Dylan to pick up and dive over the ruck to score. An excellent conversion was kicked by Byron from way out. A diving tackle by Joss in mid-field led to a turnover and a kick to the bottom left hand corner. Relentless pressure by Salisbury resulted in a well-deserved try by Callum K. W&P fought their way back into the Salisbury half but another dominant scrum led to the ball going out to Harry Gillick on the left wing, who made a blistering run, evading two tackles, then popped the ball back inside to the other backs who made it near to the try line. Ryan, with Danny and Thomas latched on, did an unstoppable pick and drive over the line to score. From the restart Byron punted the ball long down the hill and chased hard, with Ryan close behind, who demonstrated his footballing skills, dribbling it over the line to score his second. W&P’s heads never dropped and after a period of sustained pressure on the Salisbury try line, they drove over to score and kicked the conversion too. Good line-out throwing and hooking by Toby meant clean set piece ball, but for the second week in a row he was denied a try despite getting over the line. Dylan picked up from the back of the scrum and ran left to score his second and shortly after Byron broke away and popped the ball to Danny for him to score. An excellent team performance to be proud of, with great rugby and sportsmanship from both sides.