Ipswich U15s welcomed Woodbridge to the Lane on a freezing, windy morning for what proved to be a brilliant game of rugby from two fully committed teams.

Woodbridge started the game on the front foot capitalising on our poor re-start drills, which resulted in an early penalty kick which was missed, an early let off.

It soon became apparent that Woodbridge were particularly strong in the forwards and we needed to move them around a bit more to create space for the backs to exploit. The game was being played at 100 miles per hour, but after a bit of decent phase play, the ball was moved swiftly from deep in our own half to Gethin who scored in the corner, 5 – 0.

Woodbridge immediately responded and scored under the posts after a succession of penalties near our line and took the lead 5 – 7.

Although the game was still frantic, Ipswich looked likely to score every time the ball was moved wide and at pace. Following some strong forward drives in their 22, George picked and went from the base of a ruck to bundle over from 10 metres, 10 – 7.

For a while Ipswich dominated, our forwards growing into the battle and more than holding their own. Next to score was Jack who escaped a couple of tackles to sprint in from 60 metres out to make the score 15 – 7.

This was quickly followed by a great try from Gethin who scored from a Tiger move following a line out on their 10 metre line, to run unopposed under the posts, 22 - 7.

In the dying seconds of the first half, Noah pounced on a looses ball, scooping it up, evading the a few tackles and sprinting under the posts from fully 80 metres out to make the half time score.

Half time Ipswich 29 – Woodbridge 7

After a few substitutions and positional changes, Ipswich scored early in the second half, a great handling sequence releasing Kyle who jinked past the first defender and outpaced all comers to score in the corner, 34 – 7.

For some reason, Ipswich seemed to switch off after this point and were out played for large parts of the remaining minutes. Woodbridge were winning more rucks evading tackles and were generally on the front foot.

Woodbridge deservedly scored 3 tries without reply to bring the score to 34 – 22, which was probably a more realistic score line on the balance of play.

In the final few minutes, with Ipswich players dropping like flies due to injury and fatigue, we kicked a penalty in front of the posts to take the sting out of the game, which showed good game management.

Final score– Ipswich 37 – Woodbridge 22

Another brilliant match, which both sets of coaches and parents enjoyed. These are the matches where we learn where we are as a squad and what works and what we need to work on.

Again, the effort was first class, especially in defence when many of the players were running on empty after beating each other up the day before!

Well done to Gethin who was voted Man of the Match by the Woodbridge players.

Brothers