Ipswich under 15s were pleased to host Woodbridge at Humber Doucy Lane and the visitors contributed to an absorbing encounter where they set a great challenge to the hosts when they turned round 40-7 ahead. When an early second half try gave them a 40 point advantage Ipswich had a real hill to climb with 25 minutes remaining, Ipswich to their credit came back scoring 5 tries before they ran out of time with only one more score needed to post an unlikely win. The final score Ipswich 42 Woodbridge 47 was reasonably balanced but in too massively different halves the play was far from balanced with Woodbridge well on top in the opening half and Ipswich finishing equally strongly.
Ipswich had provided three players to Woodbridge, Tom White, Ed Jordan and Cameron Knox-Johnson, and they played a full part in the opening score from an enterprising Woodbridge back division on 4 minutes. Ipswich pushed forward and Dantay Ward levelled the score on 8 minutes after a series of forward drives and when Oscar Bolton converted Ipswich were 7-5 up on 12 minutes. But the remainder of the half was all Woodbridge a long pass right created a 3 man overlap in the backs setting up a easy score, a very strong winger broke away to score a third, Tom White playing for the visitors scored two and then a final score on the left wing on the stroke of half-time led to the visitors’ 40-7 lead.
After a challenging exchange at half time Ipswich resolved to sharpen up tackling and rucking, Tom White and Cameron Knox Johnston returned to the fold and Ipswich started quite enterprisingly pushing deep into the Woodbridge half. But Woodbridge turned the ball over kicking with the wind gaining territory and a scrum on the Ipswich 22, with a neat kick forward the Woodbridge fly half found space and dived on the ball unchallenged to score between the posts. The hill facing Ipswich was suddenly just a bit higher! Thereafter it was all Ipswich with 5 converted tries, Tom White scored two tries on 12 and 19 minutes, Sam Donnelly broke away on 23 minutes, Eli Govindasami drove forward with huge strength to score in traffic on 26 minutes and Sam Donnelly scored again on 29 minutes. With two or three minutes more, Ipswich could well have won but the final whistle went immediately after that final conversion and Woodbridge breathed a collective sigh of relief to emerge winners on a day where Ipswich will undoubtedly have learned a lot about the commitment needed to win and the value of driving forward even when all looks lost.