RHS are sunk!

Felsted U16 A v RHS Holbrook (A)

Result: Won 10-48

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On Tuesday, we travelled down to a windy RHS Holbrook, in the hope of avenging last year’s extraordinary 41-39 loss.  On the back of an outstanding performance on Saturday, the confidence in the squad was very high, and within two minutes, a back row move down the right had put Dan Benson in for the opening try.  Soon after that a cross field kick from Rory Hutchinson was gathered by Max Paulin, and after a couple of phases of play, James Seager crossed on the left.  With Hutchinson on target again, the lead was already 14-0.  Unfortunately, with the game at our mercy, we produced some sloppy play, failing to retain possession, and allowing ourselves to lose the ball out of the back of a 5m scrum, resulting in a long range RHS counter attack.  Having kept this out, we struck back, with full back Miles Singleton breaking through from 30m out, to go under the posts (see video clip below), again converted. From the restart, again we seemed to relax, and allowed RHS to regain possession, and following a sequence of close drives, they crossed our line.  Frustration was growing, as a 21-5 lead, having played with the wind, was not a guarantee of success.  There was just time, though, for us to gather our thoughts, and strike back with a good try from Singleton on the wide right, to give us a 26-5 half time break.  With injury concerns to James Halfhide and Harry Robins, and a strong wind to contend with, we still needed to up our game.  Fortunately, this was achieved, and Adam Sellers scored after a good period of possession.  RHS did come back hard at this point, and scored after we conceded a penalty for handling on the ground.  The scrappy nature of the game (one example in the videos below) was not helped by a lack of clarity over what was allowed at the tackle area, and frustration could have got the better of us, but showing the greater mental steel that has been a feature this year, the boys struck back with three more tries into the wind, with Max Paulin touching down, after good continuity from a tap penalty, and Miles Singleton completing his second consecutive hat trick.  The game finished with a very well worked back row move (video below), which ended with Dan Benson scoring on the right. On reflection, it was a good game to win – away games are always a challenge, and conditions were not suited to fluent rugby.  But, the team was disappointed not to be able to reproduce the sustained excellence of Saturday, and ball retention, coordination in defence, and alertness to the situation are all areas that can be better.

Man of the Match: Ben Warner

It's a long way back to Norfolk!

Felsted U16 A v Greshams (A)

Result: Won 5-52

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Despite the long journey, Gresham’s (who had put 70 points on Framlingham last week) came out of the blocks brilliantly.  From the kick off, they attacked, with an intelligent kick, and then moved the ball quickly from the line out, to take an early lead.  However, in the next 15 minutes the boys put together their best rugby of the season to date, with a score from Ben Thompson, and then two tries for Miles Singleton, whose pace caused Gresham’s problems all afternoon.  The pace, and intensity of this period of play was really impressive.  As Gresham’s tried to launch a counter attack, the hostile defence of the Felsted boys forced their captain from the field, and as their attack was just snuffed out on the left, we attacked from our own line.  Hutchinson saw the space, and released Edwards, who in turn fed Singleton, who burst through a gap on the left, and having stepped the full back, seemed to be in under the posts.  Their centre just caught him, but Max Paulin was on hand to finish the try, and with Hutchinson adding his fourth conversion, we turned round 28-5 up. In the second half, the intensity dropped slightly, but the aggressive defence and continuity remained very impressive, and there were further tries for Hutchinson (with a chip and chase), Singleton, completing his hat trick, Thompson, once again in excellent support, and Max Paulin finishing things off.  The whole squad of 21 played their part, and the ferocity of the tackling and scrummaging, along with the desire to keep the ball alive whenever possible made this a torrid afternoon for Gresham’s. I am grateful to George Bentley who has managed to capture some of the key parts of the match on video.  This was filmed on the PE Dept iPad, so I apologise for the lack of zoom.

Man of the Match: Bertie Wells

Still unbeaten - just!

Felsted U16 A v  Bishop's Stortford High School

Result: 17 - 17

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The boys did well in a tough fixture, with the added pressure of being away and without two key players (James Seager was injured, James Halfhide selected for the 1st XV).  In fact, when time seemed to be up, two well worked tries for Max Paulin, plus 7 points from the boot of Rory Hutchinson seemed to have done enough for victory at 17-10.  Unfortunately, with Alex Ferguson no doubt smiling somewhere, the clock refused to stop, and in the dying moments, a converted try from Stortford saw them draw level.  This was a real test of character for the entire team, especially when things seemed to go against them at the death.  I have to make special mention of the boys who came on during the second half - Matt Hepburn, Harry Hitchcock and Sam Payne.  Despite these enforced changes the intensity, focus and commitment did not waver.  It is also with regret that I have to report Fergus Rogers' injury looks likely to rule him out until after half term.

Man of the Match:

Felsted U16 B v  Bishop's Stortford High School

Result: Won 37-0

Tries: Hitchcock 2, Payne 2, Hepburn, Seacombe, J Misell

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At the start the match was very close contested with both forwards turning over the ball until we finally broke through the line. After that they started to deteriorate and we were able to put into action some great ambitious moves by backs and forwards alike, including a spectacular dummy that resulted in a try. After half time we clearly had the upper hand with tackles going in left right and centre. It was clear that our endurance won over theirs and in the end we came out with an optimal result. Special mention to Emil Benz, James Jarvis, George Bentley and Matt Hepburn for their spectacular runs.

Man of the Match: Sam Seacombe

Haileybury

 

Felsted U16 A v Haileybury

Result: Won 27-12

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On Tuesday, the Under 16s continued their excellent start to the season with a convincing win over a strong Haileybury side.  For the second time this year already, they reversed a defeat from last season, although this time they had to work hard for the win. Coming up to half time, scores were still locked at 0-0, until James Seager crashed over to give us a narrow 5-0 advantage going into the second period.  Haileybury fought back, and at 5-5, the game was in the balance, but tries from Max Paulin and Rory Hutchinson gave us a bit of a cushion.  Another Haileybury score could have set up a tough finish, but with the tackling once again very impressive, Ralph Stanevicius scored and, at the end of the game, Ben Warner completed an outstanding team try, to top off an excellent performance, with a 27-12 win (there is some speculation that it may have been 32-12, but nobody can remember the 6th try – details will be clarified!).

Man of the Match:

Welcome along! Sorry I'm late

Sorry this has taken a while for me to get up and running; I hope the quality of the rugby to have been played by all 40 boys that have represented the 'A' and 'B' teams goes some way to making up for my tardiness.

To have both teams unbeaten as we head into week 6 is a fantastic achievemnt and one the boys should be proud of.  I have reproduced a short summary of the games so far, courtesy of Mr Townsend.

Game 1
Felsted 27 - 5 Coopers Coburn

I was unable to be at this game due to other family commitments, but it was good to hear that all boys played well and the apparent strength in depth was an encouraging sign for the rest of the season.

Game 2
Felsted 37 - 5 Framlingham

There were scores from Marcus Joyce, Max Paulin, Dan Benson, Ralph Stanevicius, Tom Edwards, James Halfhide and Ben Thompson.  Although by no means a complete performance, it was very pleasing to win so well, when we were without Rory Hutchinson and Bertie Wells, and had to juggle the backline as a result.  The first half saw us capitalise on Framlingham mistakes to score three times, but a rather sloppy passage of play allowed them to get a score back before the break.  In the second half, the quality of our tackling stepped up further, and fairly relentless pressure saw us score four more good tries.