A Winning Start to the Second Half of the Season

The Uni u14 boys smacked Joondalup White 31-13 after a shaky start. The first 15 minutes of rugby weren't pretty but hardly unexpected coming back from two weeks of school holidays. The cold, prematch warm ups in pouring rain didn't help either.

The distinguishing feature of the play today was the great teamwork in open and running play. In other matches, some fellows seemed duty bound to retain the ball in hand when the better choice for the team would be to pass the ball. Today the ball went through several pair of hands for each scoring action. Some standout driving runs by Jacques, Rupert and Sam allowed others to score, great tackling (as all season) by Lochie and support play by most of the team paid handsome dividends. Special mention to the forwards as a group retaining possession from our own line outs with Nick jumping in his now-regular number two position, and Dougie throwing as hooker.

Behind at the half time break, the addition of fresh legs into the field equation of Clay and Kevin from Wests provided a much-needed boost to set off a try-scoring extravaganza in the second half. Even playing into the wind did not dent our sails as the boys went from well behind to a point in front then sealed the result by making the most of their opportunities. Continued pressure in the rucks and multiple phases - now that the boys have learned not to turnover possession cheaply - led directly to a couple of tries scored through strong drives to the goal line.

Well done! A winning start to the second half of the season cements our team goal to win a few more and to make team work a key element of play.

Colin from 1st Grade helped us out with more work on the tackle and ruck just before the mid season school break. This sort of input from experienced and technically adept players is extremely important to developing the best skills in the youngsters. While my own coaching has improved through the season - mirroring the boys own lift in game - the regular input from Tony, Dom, Gordon and others like Mitch, Patrick and Colin makes a positive difference.