Manor's U14's First League Match

For the first league match of the season saw Eton Manor host South Woodham Ferrers. Both teams were in division one last year and on that occasion Manor came away with the honors. As both teams warmed up the EM parents were amazed by the size of the South Woodham players and to be honest were worried. The worry was compounded by the fact that EM were missing three big impact players; Anthony, Will and Daniel to injury. If the parents were worried the boys certainly were not.

First Half
First half was a tight game. In a fast pace game both sides showed their intent to win. Manor were more dominant and had most of the ball in the first half but couldn't break the determined South Woodham defense. When South Woodham did attack it was met but equally solid Manor defense with strong tackles and rucking. South Woodham gave away a lot of possession by numerous penalties. Finally the deadlock was broken; a Manor scrum on South Woodham's 5m line saw Jack K peel off the back and at 5 meters no one was going to stop him crossing the line. Unfortunately the conversion bounced off the posts. Manor 5 - 0 South Woodham.

Second Half
Don't know what the coaches said to the boys at half time but they came out a different team. Within a minute of the kick off a maul formed in Manor's 22, from the back of it Adam peeled off and ran the length of the pitch and straight under the posts. Jack added the conversion. Manor 12 - 0 South Woodham.

A brilliant tackle by Sonny saw South Woodham knock. Harry lost no opportunity to pick up the ball and with a short sprint he crossed the line. Unfortunately jack took too long taking the conversion and the referee blew time. Manor 17 - 0 South Woodham.

Two quick tries had obviously rocked South Woodham, but it only meant they re-group and showed the same steely attack and defense as they'd shown in the first half and in fact were the next to score. Manor 17 - 5 South Woodham.

Manor immediately responded by attacking again, Phase after phase Manor moved the ball further up the field till eventually Jermaine had it in his hands and with the after burners lit it was straight over the line again. From a difficult angle Jack added the conversion. Manor 24 - 5 South Woodham.

South Woodham were now determined to score, they pressured Manor's defense and drove the ball deep into Manor's 22. Defense can sometimes become attack as one of their forwards was tackled by Adam forcing him to drop the ball. Adam needed no second invitation to pick up the ball and for the second time ran it out of manor's 22 and up to South Woodham's 22. A perfectly timed grubber, and a bounce that came start up into his hands saw Adam away and straight under the posts. Again Jack added the extra 2 points. Manor 29 - 5 South Woodham.

Time was now up, but South Woodham had one more opportunity to attack. They were determined not to miss this opportunity and with the last play of the game they crossed Manors try line. Final score Manor 29 - 10 South Woodham.

Special mention needs to go to Billy and Regan playing as hooker and prop in a very intense match and how well they handed the intensity and how well they played.

Man of the match could have gone to so many of the boys:
Edvardis for his tackling and constant strong runs from the penalties,
All the forwards for such a strong display of scrummaging and rucking,
All of the boys for their commitment to their tackling,
but finally Mick awarded man of the match to Adam for his strong defensive work, tackling and the tries.