12's start the season in style

Today Heath welcomed West Park Leeds to HQ, with some eager kids chomping at the bit to play rugby and what were great conditions to play our first game at home of the new under 12’s season.

Captain for today was Colin Smith who won the obligatory rock, paper, scissors challenge and opted to kick off. The game was in balance with both teams putting on a show for the spectators in both attack and defense. A bouldering run down the touchline from Archie Howson nearly gave Heath the advantage but a stray foot in touch denied the would be try scorer.

Both teams continued to play in what was a pretty even game for the first ten minutes, with again some exceptional tackling from Thomas Richardson picking up where he left off from last season showing both teams perfect tackle technique no matter how big or small his counterparts were.

The deadlock was broken when Zak Thompson got a hold of the ball and took on several defenders which lead for the opposition defense to scramble, a brilliant pass from scrum half Rowan Scott to AJ Boothroyd, who played at the line with Dexter Smith to throw the dummy and pass to the flying Bradley Gill which led to a well worked team try.

The lead was short lived, from KO West Park Leeds retrieved the ball from a counter ruck and went over to score. This try seemed to wake the boys up in terms of rucking which Ethan Carter and Alex Murphy provided the platform for another bustling run for Archie Howson who in turn passed on to the elusive Thomas Richardson who weaved his way through the defense to score a try.

The final 3rd of the first half looked to take its toll on some of our players with tackles creeping up above shoulder height which is something we need to correct in our game. Nevertheless, once we had been warned by ref Jamie Richardson the team responded brilliantly with their tackle technique with debutant Dexter Smith taking the line up and stopping the bigger opposition in their tracks.

The twins Colin and Harvey were unlucky not to score today with some great return runs down the fringes and returns from in play kicks. Some great leadership shown by both of the boys talking to the team encouraging them to move the ball around.

Dexter Smith was starting to get more comfortable around his new team and looked dangerous with the ball in hand and was unlucky not score on debut just being held up short with some great rucking again from Ethan Carter and Alex Murphy which Rowan Scott again provided the service from scrum half to Archie Howson to score the final try of the first half.

The 1st half finished 3 tries to 1.

The 2nd half Heath received the ball from Kick off which AJ Boothroyd caught on the full and passed to Zac Thompson who ran through the opposition defense and went all the way to score a great solo try.

This clearly shocked the visitors and their game was immediately upped with some solid counter rucking which frustrated the home team. The game again in the first ten minutes in the second half was in the balance with both sides showing skills in defense and the ruck. The deadlock was broken by some excellent counter rucking from Heath which that man again Zac Thompson took advantage of and got over the line to score.

The defense again from Heath was solid with Thomas Richardson, Alex Murphy, Archie Howson and Dexter Smith forcing the error which in turn lead to the scrum, where Ethan Carter hooked the ball superbly to retain possession. The ball was trundled up the field by Heath and when in good position Rowan Scott pounced from scrum half and darted across the field showing great speed and balance to score brilliant individual try.

The visitors chose to kick off to Heath in the hope of pinning them down in their own half which was not meant to be. The ball was again trundled up field by Archie Howson who showed great strength and a fierce hand off to get his team up the field. The ball swiftly moved through several pair of hands with the final pass from Dexter Smith to that man again Zac Thompson to score a hat-trick and a well worked team try.

Heath kicked off to the visiting team who were pinned in their own half and was under pressure from the solid Heath defense who kicked the ball down field. The ball was collected by Bradley Gill who returned the ball with his blistering pace to get Heath great field position. Some awesome rucking from Alex Murphy and Archie Howson managed to retain the ball from heavy pressure from the opposition. A crisp pass from Rowan Scott to AJ Boothroyd put that man Zac Thompson for a fourth try!

The final third of the game saw some tiredness creeping in from the home side where from the kickoff several players were offside giving the opposition field position. Lazy tackles also crept in from the tiredness of the game which in turn led to some high tackles from the home team and ultimately conceding a try to the away team. A further 2 quick fire tries from the visitors were conceded by Heath in the final 5 minutes of the game which made the game finish closer than it should have been.

The final score finishing Heath 7 tries to West Park Leeds 4 .

In Summary a great first game of Rugby played today with a lot to work on in training. The boys need to understand that they can’t just take for granted that the ruck will look after itself and we will retain possession and that when the ball is moved through hands, we are only probably 2 passes from scoring every time.

Man of the match – Zac Thompson

Zac was everywhere today in both attack and defense which showed with the number of tries scored.