U13 XII v Terra Nova Won 31-12

Tries: Rufus L (3), David C (1), Ollie N(1)
Conversions: Ollie N (3)

This was a tremendous victory in truly winter conditions, with an icy, finger numbing wind and a slippery, boggy pitch.. During the initial minutes a conceded penalty allowed a crash ball penalty to be put through the defensive line to Terra Nova’s giant centre. S.Anselm’s responded well to this shock and the team then needed to adapt quickly to the new structure of 12-a-side and after this initial five minutes of acclimatisation, began to dominate the afternoons play. A first try was scored by Rufus L,  after beating off a flurry of defenders and this then converted by Ollie N proved to be the turning point for the day. Despite being strongly penalised the S.Anselm’s side really now began to demonstrate their true calibre. They were stalwart in their defence and adopted a forwards approach to the ball handling, by making short passes and setting up the phases of forward play. The pack played an excellent game, with James B making some superb tackles to stop their bigger players at penalties, of which there were many. We were easily stronger and better drilled at both scrums and lineouts. David C was next to score managing to scamper through the three quarter defence, before being bound up and eventually barged over the line by the forwards. Rufus was quick to work some more of his magic in stealing the ball away from the opposition and muscle through to put down a second try. Alfred H was on sterling form with some great plundering in the rucks and mauls. Max H put in a great debut as a scrum half and enjoyed punishing both his opposite number and fly half. Ollie N made a great start to the second half and responded commendably to some excellent kicking from Terra Nova, running one of these attempts back through to put down a try as well as making 3 from 5 on the conversions, the last of which was made easy by Rufus L cheekily dodging along the try area and breaking tackles to put the ball down dead centre.

Man of the match was once again Rufus L for his brilliant hat-trick of tries.