Late withdrawals hurt Heath

Old Crocs 20 - 5 Heath u13s

Heath returned to Old Crocs, a test of how the lads had progressed since early December when we were on the receiving end of a heavy defeat. The squad had late withdrawals (A Kershaw, E Gill and L Moss) which meant Bradley Gill started (u12) at scrum half and Humphrey Hall moved from no 8 to centre.

In the opening 5 mins Heath were controlling possession into a strong wind and driving rain. After 25 phases of quality drives and rucks in the Heath half without error the ball went right and fullback Alfie Cartwright sprint to Crocs 20m line to be ankle tapped but not stopped - he went onto score. Crocs 0 - 5 Heath.

Crocs immediately responded to this early and promising dominance. From a scrum Crocs fly half put a cross field kick behind the Heath back line and their winger went in for a well taken try. Crocs 5 - 5 Heath.

Crocs started to pile on the pressure down their left wing and scored two further tries in the first half. Halftime: Crocs 15 - 5 Heath. Heath should have kept the gap to one try with a stronger defence, however the second half would bring a strong wind behind their backs.

The second half was a tight contest. Heath were still giving Crocs too much space on the ball. This led to another try for Crocs who drove over by the posts. Crocs 20 - 5 Heath. This led to captain Murphy having a long debate with Referee Seymour on the laws of the ruck…a lesson in life for Murph - once a referee has made a decision its final!

Final score Crocs 5 - 20. It wasn’t the result the lads wanted. Some positives from the structure of play with ball in hand, some work to be done on cutting down handling errors and being more aggressive with the rush defence.

Man of match - stand out performance by Bradley Gill on his first outing at scrum half - well done Bradders!