Woodbridge A 40-15 Ipswich Gold

Report by ABW

Thank you!
Thanks as ever to parents and relatives for coming along to watch and support the boys today. After a quick and then slow start, the boys did you and me proud!

Overview
Rather than a game of two halves, we were invited to play a game of three thirds. We switched our team every 10 mins, which provided a quick-fire opportunity to get everyone involved in what culminated in a rewarding and enjoyable set of games. Substitutions were based on positions and not on performance. Those who where regularly substituted need not look negatively at the reasons. Subs slotted in well and the performance of the team remained stable, which is a good sign.

Woodbridge were able to field a team of 18 players and were an almost completely different outfit of the one of 11 players that came to play us at home. They proved a much more organised and cohesive team to play against.

Games 2 and 3: Both 5-5 (Alex, Aston)

I was really pleased with the way the team played in the last two games which both ended 1-1. Aston scored in Game 2 and Alex again in Game 3. I have not purposely started with the positive to be nice, but to underline the fact that our team found the togetherness and understanding to turn their performances around. From a coaches’ point of view, aside from the joys of winning it is working with the players to deliver their best. Given the hefty list of ‘Things to improve’ from the first game (below), each and every player stepped up. We played for each other, stopped the opposition running, tacked better and sooner, were much better organised, stopped blaming each other and improved our control breakdown.

In both Games 2 and 3 we spent much more time in their half than they did in ours and could with a bit more control could have won both games.

What we did especially well
Alex, Aston, AJ’s, Ethan's and Matt’s direct running with the ball.
Fred, Bill, Matt, Ethan, Logan and AJ’s tackling and closing down of the opposition
Mo and Tavonga’s distribution.
Alex, Aston, George, Rowan, and Matt’s running with the ball in hand
Support from Will R, Max and Harvey.

MotM: AJ for most markedly turning his game around from the first game. He took my general criticism of the whole team on-board and really stepped up. Ran well with the ball. Tackled well.

Back to Game 1: 30-5 to Woodbridge (Alex)

We started very brightly, scoring a try through a positive and very direct run from Alex. Then somewhat inexplicably, we had a collapse in confidence after conceding, moving from 1-1 rapidly to 1-6 to Woodbridge at the end of the first of our three games.

Things we did well:
A few powerful runs and isolated tackles, but truthfully we gave away too much ground and play to Woodbridge….it got a lot better though!

Things to work on we will talk about at training as a unit. Get to training boys.

So finally, lets make games 2 and 3 the norm. "This is what we do; not what we could do!"