9th September 2012 at Wetherby Match 1 v Wetherby (York won 7-0)

Playing squad: Tom, Patrick, Henry, Adam, Harrison, Bosy, Oscar, Chris, Marcus D, Dan, Isaac, James M, Sam, James B, Charlie, Harry, Jack

Promising early season contests against tough and improving opponents. It was good to see how easily the team adapted to the new (for U13s) full pitch, XV player format, as well as acceptance of hand-offs and fly hacking. Players were rotated and thus received the experience and game awareness of playing in many positions. Thank-you Wetherby for laying on a beautiful morning of sunshine – perfect for cricket!
And thank-you Max for your support, again.

The first half kicked off with York playing right to left into the sun. The match was generally hard fought with solid Wetherby forward play matched by York’s pressing and expansive play in the back line. There were good performances from Dan (on fire, yet disciplined in the first half), Bosy (playing with impressive confidence around the back of the scrum) and Adam (always first to the ball in the second half), while also deserving of praise were Charlie (doing the simple stuff well – and fast) and Isaac (reliable and steadfast at scrum half, while tidying up along the back line). Every other player could take pride in individual stand-out moments as well as a strong team performance. Communication was excellent, discipline was sound and there was good positional awareness. Also in evidence was the early season investment in extra training sessions and the benefit of a successful competitive fixture at Hull the previous week.

York made their breakthrough midway through the first half through Dan’s fine finish up the centre of the park, with Patrick leading by example in the build up with a bulldozing run through the red and white hoops. Charlie delivered the conversion with welcome advice from Jack. The rest of the half was marked by some slick movement of the ball down the back line by York, although a number of handling errors, blind passing at times and numerous offside decisions betrayed a certain lack of match sharpness.

The second half started much as the first half had ended with strong pressing by York rewarded by a series of offside decisions. Early stalemate on York’s left was broken up by good work in the loose from York’s forwards, notably a good steal by Henry, and movement of the ball towards more expansive play on York’s right. A period of Wetherby pressure, relieved by a solid catch and charge into the Wetherby line by James B, culminated in a warning for Dan as his hand-off was judged too high. From the re-start however, Wetherby’s effort down York’s right side was swiftly countered by an Adam B break, supported by Chris, that took play into Wetherby’s 22 – typical of many such positive moves, usually involving 2-4 York players, in both halves – good support, good teamwork. York were awarded the scrum at the breakdown, but failed to control their forward movement and therefore conceded the penalty. The remainder of the half was spent within 10m of the touch line on York’s right and was marked by good strong play in the loose from York. A number of penalties conceded however, allowed Wetherby the chance to find touch on more than one occasion, demonstrate their superiority at the line-out and recover territory lost in open play. Unusually for York, though possibly a consequence of the full size pitch, their sharpness in the back line did fade in the final quarter with a flattening attack and weakening tempo. The forwards also lost some of their hunger in the same period – understandable given the stop-start nature of the play. The defensive play never wavered however and victory at the final whistle was more than deserved.

Bill Nelson, 14th September 2012