Under 15s Win on Road at Woodbridge Warriers

Ipswich players turned out for both sides and were thoroughly committed in whatever jersey in an entertaining and high scoring match at Woodbridge. Ipswich triumphed 59-29 but Woodbridge, to their credit, came back from a huge deficit to outscore Ipswich in a much tighter second half.

It was a breathless start, Ipswich kicked off and the ball was fielded well by Ipswich wing Will Hall playing for Woodbridge who sprinted forward 30-40 meters before a great cover tackle by Sam Donnelly pulled Will up, Ipswich turned over the ball and spun the ball wide left to release Jake Hoskings in space who sprinted forward out running Woodbridge defenders and scoring between the posts with only a minute played, Sam Donnelly converted. That established the pattern for the match, great counter attacking play from Ipswich whenever they could with Freddie Bolton and Adam Rudolph linking well to move ball quickly from the areas of congestion to create space for wide runners. But Woodbridge scored next on 11 minutes after strong runs from Dantay Ward and James playing for the blues. Normal service for Ipswich was resumed immediately with tries on 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, 25 and 30 minutes from Jake Hoskings twice, Eli Govindasami, Jake Hoskings again, Tom White twice and Ryan Fosker on the stroke of half time. With a fair few conversions from the ever-reliable Sam Donnelly Ipswich were ahead 52-5 as the teams turned round.

The Ipswich coaches re-balanced the sides moving 5 players to play with Woodbridge and that paid dividends immediately when Jake Hoskings, now playing for the blues intercepted and broke clear to score for Woodbridge after a minute of the second period. It was 2o minutes before the next score Ipswich had defended well after a Jake Hoskings drive clearing lines and just coming short before Tom White playing for Woodbridge broke clear and sprinted 50 meters to score again for the home side. That shook the Ipswich side and Dantay Ward broke clear running strongly to score between the posts. So Ipswich were 59-19 clear with around 8 minutes of the match remaining. The match result was not in danger but Woodbridge had pride at stake and to their credit and with 5 strong Ipswich players well to the fore attacked strongly scoring twice more to bring the final score to Woodbridge 29 Ipswich 59.

It was a great workout for all players and The Ipswich boys who played for Woodbridge showed real commitment to deliver strong performances and an entertaining match which by the end was highly competitive. This will undoubtedly prepare all players well for the upcoming Suffolk Cup matches in two weeks time.

George