U14’s first Youth Competition of the season in Pool 1 of the Sussex U14 Waterfall… surrounded by 3 top half A League teams from last year… This Pool is going to be a tough one for us.

Cold but bright and sunny November morning down in Hove.
Perhaps it was an omen… as players started arriving, missing boots, missing shirts…. Come On boys! Take a little tip from an OCD coach ☺ - check and layout your kit the night before, double check it, and pack it.

Game got underway on time at 11:00
Right from the off-set things looked very positive for G’s. Dominating the territory game and constantly applying pressure on Hove and putting them on the back foot.
However, Hove are a streetwise team. First score went to them with a break-away Try 10mins in, converted and the score went Hove 7 v 0 EG.
Restart and immediate Pressure on from G’s largely from some tough up-front battles with the Forwards. Possession being kept and forging our way up the field slowly but surely once again. In step Cain Levene and one of his ‘bulldozing’ runs through the opposition to score, unconverted score now Hove 7 v 5 EG. Game on.
11.20 though and another Hove score from yet another break-away… small gaps and small opportunities and Hove were taking them and making them count. Unconverted we went through to half time Hove 12 v 5 EG.

Not down and out and very much in the game. G’s had nearly all the territory so far and the majority of possession. We simply needed to turn that in to points.

Second half and again G’s pushed hard from the start driving into the opposition half. Big ball carries from Cain Levene and Zac Collins making dents in the Hove defense. 3mins in and one such attack down the right side of the pitch attacking the 22m and the overlap to the wing was exposed. Perfectly quick ball down the line to James Oakley on the wing found him in space with 25m run in to the left corner to score. Unconverted and score now Hove 12 v 10 EG. The game continued very tightly contested with G’s always looking like they could turn the points around but small mistakes prevailed. Next score 11:54 for Hove from yet another break-away, converted and the Score went to Hove 19 v 10 EG with time running out.
The final play of the game… 12:02 into stoppage time… saw Hove on one of their rare attacks into the G’s half and attacking our 22m down the right… no space there and a clever kick over to the left corner perfectly weighted and sitting for a touch down… Alex Moore and Hove Wing gave chase…
Now Alex is confident that he got there first, the Hove wing declared that he did, the referee was unsure and went with the “question of doubt going in favor of the attacking team” and awarded the score. Final score 24 v 10.

Not the score that we’d hoped and indeed all the signs were there that we could win the game. But much credit to Hove, they are a very street-wise Team (as with all the top teams in the age group) . Whilst they were made to work with limited territory and less possession, when they had the opportunities to score the points they took them – and we simply can’t say the same. Lessons Learned… we need to get smarter and more clinical in the way we finish things off. We just couldn't find the extra 'edge' to win the match...

Some Fabulous work from the Team who should be very proud of their performance, but, the Lessons Learned to be taken away for thought and brought to the next training session.

MoM this week:
Coaches were looking for high commitment levels from the team this week. Plenty of players demonstrated such commitment including (but not limited to), Fin Crawford all over the place, Harvey Snashfold again leading from the front in the pack, Ryan Trotter putting in leg chop after leg chop…
But this week, Massive Commitment in one tackle in particular that ended his game through a ‘stinger’ to his arm… MoM. Will Roberts – Well done Will, work rate and Rugby brain improving week on week… keep it up.