Season opener starts with us misfiring up at Southwold

Southwold U14’s 34 v 12 Ipswich Black U14’s (Tries: Fin, Rory Conversion: Callum M)

Our first outing of the season and Southwold did a proper job on us today. Yes the majority of their better players may be playing regularly together at school, and yes they may have played more club matches than us this season, (this was our first game of the season) but nevertheless we were well beaten today. That said I feel they are very one dimensional in that everything comes through two or three players and so as the season moves on, if we can build momentum we will be more than okay if we all work hard together when we meet them again.

Today though when we got one or two bodies to the breakdown, they then flooded it and we really didn’t deal well with those onrushing numbers. We also didn’t get anywhere near their line speed and were generally out muscled in what was a very decent game for the spectators but frustrating for the group given that we are generally about much higher levels of output. That was the theme of the day. We were a solid second best generally. We need to work much harder with and without the ball. It’s worth remembering that you can’t always win and that we generally learn more from losing rather than winning. As long as we take the learning on board I am sure we will be more than fine.

We did have some very decent performances today across the squad as we tried to dominate. We need to all be at it though if we are to get results in the big games like this one. We can’t rely on some of us. We need all of us.

In our pack, Will and Arch were massive at the breakdown for us today and hit big tackle numbers. Haz, Joe and Dom all hit good lines and Otis, Ollie W and Callum C all hit good tackles.

In our backs, Victor, Fin, Ollie S and Rory all made good gains and worked hard ball in and out of hand. Sam Wright talked and did well in a big game to debut at 9 and Harv, Kajaei, Callum M and Aston all pushed forward well ball in hand.

Man of the match went to Fin today. Well done young man.

We all need to work harder to put this right and move forward as soon as we can.

Thank yous to all the parents, friends and siblings who made the journey on what was a glorious day on the coast. Thank you also to Harris for making the journey and for supporting the boys despite injury.

See you all at training. Don’t be late.

#brothers