U14 Black beat touring Twickenham at the Lane today

Ipswich U14 Black 17 - 0 Twickenham U14 (Tries: Rory 3 Conv: Callum M)

A glorious spring morning at the Lane saw us welcome our old friends from Twickenham, a club that as an age group we have built solid bonds with over the years. The superb Andy McMahon has been heavily involved in their tour this year, setting up their other game down the road at Stowmarket for them yesterday and today it was our turn. Thank you to everyone at the club for making them all so welcome.

With it being half term we had a few away and this meant opportunity for others to stake claims and cement starting roles in this very competitive squad. A new centre partnership in Harry and Finn to look at, Leo starting at 8 and Fred H and Callum C in the second row.

Both sides went at each other from the first whistle and what unfolded was yet another very compelling game of rugby. Our defence like last week was again immaculate, today though we hit the ball running in the back line and played with a creativity that has been missing somewhat recently if we are picking holes. The link between the two sides is the Hollis family and it was great that today Rory got all three tries and not surprisingly the Man of the Match award. He played with a freedom that undid Twickenham a number of times from his role in the 9 space and if you do dare give him an inch he will hurt you regardless of whether he has a soft spot for you, as Twickenham found out today.

That said it was far from a one man show. We spent long periods of the second half on our own try line and repelled everything Twickenham came up with. They have some big lads but we stood firm and turned the ball over a number of times. Our set piece was again very good today and our handling much better compared to last week but then the sun was out, conditions better and as such more conducive to playing decent rugby.

As a coach team we were really pleased with the phases we built very patiently and then with the way we executed when we got into striking distance. Our run lines were good and our contact work was top drawer. A very pleasing mornings work.

Star Men

As I’ve said Rory picked up the MoM today. Well done Rozza! A hattrick of tries is great in any game, let alone one of this standard. I was really pleased with Harry at 12 ball in hand. A new role for him and he took to it well. He and Finn looked very good as a partnership. Charles, Joe F, Ollie W, Vic and Harris all also very good in the backs. The forwards gave another really solid performance as a unit. Some great contact work from Fred H, Arch, Will, Callum M, Callum C, Leo, Kajaei, Otis and Dom as a group. We feel really confident our defence will stand up to test moving forward and there are lads knocking on the door to add to this group in the coming weeks and months. The future is very bright.

Thank you

Thank you to all those that came and watched. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Thank you to Twickenham for playing twice this morning. Thank you to Dougie and the kitchen helpers for the meals for the boys afterwards and to the club for opening up the bar and making everything tick given that we were pretty much the only age group around today.

Next week

Training. Get there.