U15s win at Minety
Salisbury U15s were away to a combined Minety and Tetbury side for a friendly on Sunday 2nd December. Final score 36:12.
Minety are blessed with a pitch that is nearly as steep as the Eiger and the wind was blowing strongly downhill. The slope and the wind were against Salisbury in the first half. After pressure from both sides, the ball went wide to the right for Salisbury and Callum G cleverly dropped a short inside ball to Alex rather than using his fully marked teammates who were running out of space near the touchline. The surprise move opened the defence and Alex sprinted in to score a well-worked try. The opposition had the bigger pack and the Salisbury scrums were under pressure, as well as the rucks where we were counter-rucked more than once by a committed opposition. Minety and Tetbury capitalized on penalties to win lineouts near the Salisbury try line, and after some valiant defence the Minety forwards pushed over to score, and then shortly after scored again near half time to leave Salisbury 7:12 down. However, from good forwards ruck ball, Harry W set the backs running and Harry G saw a gap and powered through to score. Halftime 12 all.
The second half favoured Salisbury with the wind and slope, and after good team pressure, and powerful runs by Dylan, Danny and Billy, Fraser D soon darted in to score. Jacob Pike at fly half struggled to catch a ball off his bootlaces, but the ball went backwards and in the confusion, he blasted through a defensive gap and sprinted 30m to score under the posts.
By this time the Salisbury rucking was improving and providing more clean ball for pick and go or to the backs and Billy blasted through for not one, but two tries to leave the final score at 36:12. Credits to those who scored the three conversions – including Seb and Jacob P.
A great match against a worthy opposition and coaching team, who provided great hospitality in the bar afterwards. Ronnie in his first match made his mark by nailing a ball carrier in his in-goal area, forcing a 5m scrum. Sam Thomas read the space well at full back, catching kicks and tackling reliably – nobody went through him. But the two men of the match were Alex who tackled, carried, rucked and scrummaged his heart out, and Callum G who was selected by the opposition players as their stand-out player.
Apologies - photos taken on a phone and not ideal - but a record!
