UNDER 14’s WIN NORTH MIDS PLATE!!

A fantastic day for the U14’s on a glorious sunny morning in Droitwich.
Sils started nervously, which given the importance of the game, and playing in front of a big crowd, was not surprising.
DK were clearly well fired up for the match and put their superior physical presence to good use by playing a tight forward dominated game. Sils found it hard to keep the ball and were living on scraps.
However nerves were settled when the backs got moving and Arun B broke through for the first of his tries. Matt T slotted the conversion
Conor W then went on barnstorming run and seemed to be clear and running in under the posts but a superb chasing tackle pulled him up short. We were beginning to dominate, but DK battled back into our half and slotted a penalty to cut the lead to 7-3.
Sils broke again with Josh B looking like he would win the race to a kick through, but he was held back off the ball – well spotted by the ref and a yellow card for DK.

We turned round at half time 7-3 up, with the wind behind us and the sun on our backs, and the boys had been given clear instructions to stop trying to take DK on up front and just spin the ball wide. Sam B came on for Eddie and Denzel came in for Ollie.

To be honest the second half was a bit of a blur – Denz and Arun scored early on and that settled things for us, and the boys started playing with more confidence and verve. Conor was yellow carded for over exuberant mauling (he was still claiming last night he was punching the ball…) – from the touchline a YC looked a good call Conor! Inevitably as the game started to run away from DK frustration started to show – but it was generally handbags. Arun ran in another 2 tries to complete an astonishing four tries in a final (having only scored 4 tries in total this season!) and Sam B scored one.

Regretably the day ended on a sour note……………when we met our match in the Coke/Mars Bar challenge with DK fielding a player who would have given Jo W a run for his money. Our Player of the Day, Ronan J, failed spectacularly to make it a clean sweep for Sils.
Thanks to DK players and parents (and their Coach Andy Gallis in particular) for their generosity in defeat – all the DK players played with commitment right through to the final whistle and we wish their injured player a speedy recovery.
As for Sils – a fantastic performance boys – we didn’t get “DK nil” which was our target – but as one of the DK Mum’s said to me – “you simply tackled us out of the game”.

The Plate is won – with 106 points for and only 3 against in the four matches since losing out in the preliminary round to eventual Cup winners Worcester.

We should enter Season 2009/10 with real confidence boys.