Southwold Rugby Reports

A much changed Southwold side travelled up to Romford to take on the Essex side. Again the long journey played its part in stopping Southwold from gaining a quick start from the blocks. The physicality and aggression from Old Cooparians saw Southwold instantly on the back foot.

The numerous changes to the line up saw little organisation from the Southwold side resulting in some ground gained around the fringes, with quick ball for old Cooparians the backs had time and space giving the 13 room to step with him having the gas to run in untouched. This provided Southwold a much needed boost and the ball was retained for an extended period with Southwold strongly pressing for the line.

Experience and foul play kept Southwold out, which eventually was noted by the referee, and the 3 points taken. Old Cooparians then enjoyed a period of pressure seeing them camped out on Southwold 5 meter line for an age with some excellent defence work the pressure appeared to have been absorbed until the referee wrongly cited Southwold hands in the ruck and awarded the penalty with Southwold going down to 14 men. The following scrum was almost walked over but for the clever play from Southwolds young 9.

Eventually however Southwolds defence gave through to the constant battering to take the score to 12-3. Southwold rallied from the kick off after a great first hit from Gavin Starks which allowed some slick hands to find Southwold held up over the line. The inexperienced Southwold side however could only come away from this with 3 points converted by the old head D Hume. This saw the end of the first half arguably at the wrong time for Southwold who were starting to string some phases together.

The second half saw a strong defence from Southwold which kept out Old Cooparains for the vast majority of the game and some very strong attacking play from individuals just lacking the support to bring about points on the board. The score looked likely to end unchanged but for a chip and very lucky bounce from the 13 whose pace allowed him to run in his second of the afternoon which he soon converted.

Credit must be given to the Old Cooparains who played the game and the referee better than Southwold and the post match disappointment was all the more for the knowledge that Southwold had the beating of them it just didn’t turn up. Credit should be given to the guys who travelled up for a second long away trip on the bounce especially the lads who were playing their first’s rugby debuts.

Sunday in the Suffolk Plate saw an incredible away victory by an outnumbered Southwold U15 Sharks! The background to the BIG KAHUNA was that the Sharks have had a rash of injuries. That meant that, even including the walking wounded, the U15 Sharks could field only 14 players at the start of the match vs the 15 (plus substitutes of Ipswich). Sadly, by half time the U15 Sharks were down to 13 and by the end of the match to 12 players against a full strength Ipswich.

However, the members of this U15 Sharks squad have long since learned that the true value of any victory of theirs relies on the quality and worth of the opposition. In that respect, the Ipswich U15s proved themselves to be absolutely top-drawer opponents and a huge test. In the end, both sides scored four tries, with the U15 Sharks having converted two of their tries and Ipswich none. Issue is that none of that can ever catch the intensity of this closely fought match!

Any match report has to start with the fact that Ipswich took the lead, however, Daniel McGinty – not for the first time – had other ideas. Daniel took matters into his own hands and levelled the score with a great try in his trademark barnstorming fashion. Similarly, any such report would have to praise at length Sam Button’s absolutely scintillating flying try that very soon followed. The U15 Sharks were to hold the lead right to the end after that, despite everything Ipswich could throw at them.

In a match report along those lines though, special mention would also, of course, have to be made of Sam Taylor’s and Angus Kinsella’s hugely impressive performances – their two tries were terrific and came at crucially important times. Problem then would be that we would need to balance that by including Connor Jones’ astonishingly heroic defence and the fact that his two conversions were the only difference between the sides.

Once we mention heroics though, we would definitely have to mention Bobby Wickham who played despite and through his injury and made an enormous contribution. Same problem when mentioning defence – no match report would be complete without mentioning Jack Strachan’s and Harvey Wallis’s try saving tackles and that is before we even get to the twin rocks of Felix Trash andRory Lacey upon whom numerous Ipswich attacks foundered.

The issue then, as everybody who has ever played rugby knows, is that FORWARDS WIN MATCHES AND THE BACKS DECIDE BY HOW MUCH! So the immense efforts, spirit and heart shown by Alex Hood, Fraser Warburton and Will Robinson would need to be written about at length. If that were to happen, a whole chapter would then be needed on the exemplary Taz Smith, the U15 Sharks captain, who brilliantly led both his forwards and his side to victory.

In short this was a team performance by the U15 Sharks that exemplified the fact that Southwold is indeed ‘the little club with the big heart’.

This Sunday saw Southwold U13 squad of 21 players down to 14 playing at Wymondham. Three off with injury and four playing at The England Prep School Barbarians trials. So we were forced to borrow wingers (not ringers) from the opposition.

Southwold started with a weakened scrum but the lads held their own and were winning their own put-in, with Milo having his debut game at the No8 position. This meant James had his debut game at full back denying Wymondham more tries with a great performance at last man tackling that earned him man of the match from the Wymondham coach. Joe was moved into the fly half and, with some excellent kicking, tested the Wymondham backs who were always under pressure from Tom and Brannan on the follow-up.

Wymondham dominated in the loose and rucking but faced valiant efforts from Christian who continually wrestled the ball our way, but the rest of the pack didn’t arrive in sufficient numbers to secure. A penalty from Wymondham late on in the 2nd half saw a superb kick from Joe hit touch a few metres from Wymondham’s try line, only to have the penalty reversed by the ref after
some over enthusiastic congratulatory language from a team mate! This denied Southwold again the chance to get on the score board. In the dying minutes there was some excellent linking
from the forwards, Tom, Jack FS, Milo & Konnor nearly putting Jack C over the line. But alas no score.

All in all an excellent effort from a reduced Southwold side in a game that Southwold really deserved to get on the score sheet.

The coaching staff can be proud of their players after a hard fought win over Hadleigh & Mistley. This was Southwold’s first group game in the Suffolk Plate, and were pitched up against a very large squad of players from Hadleigh. Southwold started strongly with some excellent tackles from the 3/4s and following a good turnover of possession in a maul from Sam and Jens, Callum ran at the defence and found Jake. Jake straightened his run and fed Connor, who side stepped through to score an unconverted try. From the kick off, Southwold controlled the ball and some fine running down both wings highlighted the style of play for the first half.

Chris made a fine break only to be stopped short of the try line. The ball swept across the width of the park where Darius rounded his player to touch down. Micheil took a fine high ball and showed an excellent turn of pace down the left flank, supported well by Innes and Alex. In the scrum, Wold’s front row of Tim, Cairns and Jens were dominating their larger opposite numbers. This was giving the base for Siggy and Callum to orchestrate the backs. Southwold’s next try came from a quick tap penalty when Jacob and Jake combined well allowing the latter to score in the corner.

They then took a 20 point lead following a good kick forward from the wing, excellent chasing and Jacob picking up the loose ball and breaking tackles to score a well worked try. The opposition then scored a deserved try when the massive sub ran through tacklers to score under the posts. His second attempt at this ended with a huge tackle from ‘Iron Man of the Game’ Connor. Not wanting to let the player pass for a second try, he lined up the player and hit him hard to stop his progress. The half ended 20-7.

If the first half belonged to the backs, the second belonged to the forwards. Cairns was superbly hooking opposition ball in every scrum. Props Jens and Tim were tackling well and stealing ball in the rucks. Flankers Woody and Innes were always at hand to pick up loose ball and support the open play. Chris then took the ball down the right and was tackled with a massive hit.

With such good possession from the forwards, Siggy could feed quick ball out to the backs at will. Chip came into the game and made a couple of searching runs, always supported by Zak and Alex. The centre partnership of Jacob and Jake was paying dividends, but forward passes and dropped ball was limiting the scoring.

Connor was revelling in the role of full back, side stepping his way forward in attack and looking for support from the wings. Zak then picked up loose ball from a scrum and powered forward. Some neat passing saw Jacob break clear and score his second try. The final move of the game saw what the coach’s are looking for. Quick ball from the breakdown allowed Siggy to find ‘Man of the Match’ Callum. Quick passing through the centres Jake and Jacob allowed winger Darius to dive over and score his second.

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