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SWF RUFC WEEKLY ROUNDUP
SWF 1st XV v Holt
Saturday 19 September
South Woodham Ferrers RFC recorded their second win of the
season with an emphatic eight try thrashing of visitors Holt. This
was the performance that has been bubbling along under the
stuttering games of the last few weeks with the forwards dominant
in all areas of the game and the backs able to play with style and
pace, off good quick ball.
The game started brightly for the home side when the first scrum
of the game saw Woodham drive the visitors back to win the first
of a several penalties at the set piece. The decision to take another
scrum and then another, after a second penalty, put the lads deep
in the Holt half. The reward came with a run-in try for flanker Liam
Searles, converted by Alex Baker.
More scrums and more penalties deep in the Holt 22 illustrated the
dominance that the home side had. The resulting possession gave
the Woodham backs a chance to put on the style with three more
converted tries from Sevie Hurrell, Jordan Harper and Alex Baker.
SWF U12’s at Harlow RFC Festival
20th October 2019
Squad: Alfie, Archie, Byron (C), Charlie, Dan, Felix, Jack B, Jack C,
Jake, Jared, Josh, Kenny B, Kenny R, Tom, Will.
With Wales squeaking past France 20-19, the boys prepared to
participate in their first festival of the season. The day started off
cool, bright and sunny at the beautiful home of Harlow Rugby. With
Stanford RFC not turning up, the boys only had 3 games to play:
Old Grammarians B, Harlow and Westcliff.
Holt only managed to threaten the Woodham line in the last few
minutes of the half but the defence remained strong and the
whistle came with home side well on top at 28 points to nil.
Changes in the line-up for the second half didn’t unsettle the home
side who continued to dominate all aspects of the game. The backrow
trio of Liam Searles, Stuart Whatling and captain Lewis Gilbert
proved to be a real handful for the Holt defence, breaking the line
at will to pile on the pressure.
Man of the match Liam Searles opened the second half scoring
with yet another break through try and to keep the forwards on
the scoreboard Ollie Trigg found himself on the wing to go over
for Woodhams sixth.
Holt did not give up trying to break through but strong defending
all round saw the ball turned over several times and the Woodham
counter was always threatening. Warren Duggan had several
strong runs from deep in his own half before a final off-load paid
off with Jordan Harpers second try of the day.
As the game drew to an end Woodham passed the 50 point mark
when they were awarded a penalty deep in the Holt 22. A line out
was taken and the resulting attack saw John Murphy dive over
from close range, Alex Baker slotted the conversion to finish with
a 17 point tally.
The whistle came with Woodham having accrued 52 unanswered
points. It was a dominant and disciplined display marred only by
an injury to Scott Horsburgh. In attack the lads were clinical and
could have scored more if Holts defence had not been as well
organised. In defence they gave nothing away and it was pleasing
to see the penalty count at its lowest for some weeks.
FOCUS
Game 1: a shaky start from the boys meant the result went against
them 0-4. A few good tackles from Felix and Jack C, some rucking
from Josh and great ripping from Kenny B and Daniel showing
quick reactions at the scrum. They lost Tom due to injury and it
seemed as the sun disappeared behind the clouds so did the boys’
spirits.
Game 2: a brighter start this time from the boys. Both Byron and
Jack B made good ground, with Josh and Dan making their tackles
count. Harlow scored first but the boys fought back with good
carries made by Josh, Jack B and Byron. Finally, Kenny B powered
through to score the first try of the day. From a penalty to a scrum,
Daniel then took the ball and carried it over to make it 2-1. Handling
errors and high tackles meant that Harlow pulled it back to 2-2
before scoring a third. Now the squad had lost Josh to injury too.
Game 3: having lost 2 players to injury, Kenny B and Archie made
lovely gains. Daniel, Jack C and Kenny B made crucial tackles but
the final score was 0-3 with Alfie lost to injury too.
Not the best day at the office for the boys but plenty to work on
for the rest of the season. The Harlow coach made a point of
complimenting the boys for playing in the spirit of the festival:
teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship. Well
done boys and thanks to Coach Chris, Josh, Wayne and Victoria
for giving up their time to shape and develop the team.
Rest week next week.
SWF RFC U10’s at Harlow Festival
20th October.
Harlow hosted a Festival of Rugby.
Our squad was Alfie, Brad, Ellis, Hayden, Katie, Keith, Luca, Mikey,
and Ollie.
We played against Epping, Harlow, Old Grammarians, and
Upminster.
We played our first game on the back of a late warm up, and it
showed. We were slow out of the blocks. Our first up tackling was