If you want to write a match report for a game you have played in or watched, then please send it to me at robh.afrc@googlemail.com.
Match Report U14's Reading
"The weather was good and the team appeared to be up for this game when the
whistle was blown.
For a good while A&F managed to play some exciting forward play but
conceded 4 converted tries during the first half . This despite getting physically
on top of the opposition line only to be held up on more than one occasion
and having some brave defence play done by Reading stopping A&F from scoring.
The second half was different with Darren's half time talking still
ringing in their ears they looked confused, however he obviously inspired them to
score 3 tries, converting 2 of them before stamina got the better of them
and Reading came back with 3 tries of their own again converting 2.
The travelling crowd from A&F were treated to some exceptionally spirited
play especially during the second half and the three joint "men of the
match" were Michael, Fraser and James although the whole team really
deserved it having allowed us supporters to shout ourselves hoarse by the
end of the game.
Final score 53-19 but really this was a different team in the second half
to any we have seen this season, well done EVERYONE and keep up the good
work.
Anyone available for training on Thursdays at Aldershot Park from 7pm is
always welcome, with room for more."
Match Report U16's Home: Guildfordians February 17th
A bright and frosty morning greeted 19 U16s at Aldershot Park and 15 Players from Guildfordians. This was going to be a test as to which league we were going to try for as U17 next season. Guildfordians are in Surrey Division 2, which is where London Irish B play, We play Gosport and Fareham next Sunday who are in the lower half of Hampshire Division 2, the outcome of that game, will be our deciding factor, in which League we try to put the U17s in.
Barry and Ant took the lads through the warm up and Ant selected the starting 15, Sam Maguire, Tom Baker and Alastair Rom for the front row, JP and Aaron Ireland at 4 and 5, Tom Catchpole at 6 and Dave Ranson in his usual 7 shirt, Nick back in his original No 8, Ed Brown who has made the 9 his own and Graham Love at 10, Ryan Canning and Andy Bell at 12 and 13, with Phil Cresswell at 11 and Ray Wright, who had made a great recovery after his trip in the Ambulance last week, at his usual 14 and Sean Sutton wearing the 15 shirt again. Davy Armstrong, Tom Cross, Mike Sweeney and Tom Brett on re-hydration and bench warming duty for the 1st half.
Guildford kicked off and A&F made some great penetrative runs from the start, Nick making some great carries and tackles, the game was very evenly matched with scrumming and mauls although several rucks were given away, we must concentrate on securing these loose ball situations. Just about 10 minutes in, Phil won a ball on his right wing and cleverly kicked across to Ray who carried made up almost the whole of Guildfords 1/2 before going into touch. The resulting Guildford line out was won by them but some great pressure from Andy forced them to touch down behind, for a 22m scrum, which they unconvincingly won and again under pressure their kick came to Graham who went over for the 1st try on about 12 minutes. With the conversion missed 5v0. Guildford came straight back and it was a very evenly contested game, a few handling errors with our backs gave more possession to Guildford than they possibly deserved and they had gone into the lead with 2 converted tries by 25 minutes. A very well worked piece of pressure though, saw Ryan go over almost under the posts and the resulting kick bounced off the post just on 1/2 time, 10 v 14.
2nd half saw Graham gallantly going on for Guildfordians, after they suffered an injury. Mike replaced him at Fly half, Davy came on for Aaron, Tom Brett on for Ray and Phil went to his usual Full Back as Tom Cross came on at 14 and replaced Sean. Within 2 minutes, it seemed that this was a winning formula as a well worked move allowed Tom Cross to go over for his 1st try for the club, the kick was narrowly missed to make 15 v 14, Guildford though were not giving up and soon pulled up to 19 points with an unconverted try, Nick then ran a powerful hard won “forwards” try, and probably the hardest position all afternoon Ryan converted to make 22 v 19, Guildford duly scored and converted again for 26 points. However the forwards were not leaving it there and Nick fought hared for yet another well fought try (unconverted) to make the winning score the closest it could be 27 v 26.
Everybody fought hard and we have to say that we deserved to win, it could have been easier though, some of the harder won tries could so easily have been backs tries as the backs always got re-aligned and were ready for the passes that sometimes could have been made, we missed on a few occasions where quick safe passes could have put some safe distance on Guildford, Line out were very good and we won at least 2 against the head.
Overall very well done lads and you made your supporting parents very happy at the final whistle. Heads down for next Sunday and Gosport and Fareham.
Reading festival U10’s match report(s)
14/10/07
Match 1: Aldershot & Fleet v. Reading Abbey
We were on first so we hadn’t had time to practice before the game. Matthew lead the pack as they chased the ball round the muddy pitch, running, tackling and challenging them in a very even match. But as A+F went into a ruck, the Abbey forwards drove through and turned the ball over. Their powerful centre then ran like lightning through the Aldershot defence to score the first try of the day.0-5
A+F kept trying but had to defend for most of the game however, they did the job well. The line-outs had been 50/50 all game so when A+F cleared the ball, Abbey kept bringing it down again! A+F did have one or two breaks but they were out of time but still ended the match happy.
Final score: Aldershot & Fleet 0 Reading Abbey 5
Match 2: Aldershot & Fleet v. Reading
Two matches later, we faced the only team we’d played against before. We always have tight matches against Reading and this was no exception! Reading started and kicked it straight towards Joseph H. who ran forwards until he was brought down by a Reading back. A+F were still in a tight position, though and when Ryan took the ball out, he smacked the ball to the other end of the pitch, with his team mates chasing frantically. The Reading full-back ran, dodging the Aldershot players and eventually, dived over to score a try. 0-5
A+F started again, determined not be on the losing side again and kept pressurising the attacking hosts, who constantly recycled the ball when we tackled them. Then, Ryan made a stunning tackle to put the Reading wing into touch for an A+F lineout. Liam clawed the ball back and ran down the line with the rest of the team pushing from behind-even some of the backs were in there doing their bit! The players all went over the line with one last gasp; waiting for the ref to call a try and we were so relieved when he did! 5-5.
We ran back, ready for the re-start and had to work exceptionally hard to refrain Reading from scoring. In the dying seconds, A+F had a break from a lineout and the pack of forwards drove up. Liam then went down and Ollie picked it up and charged on the blind side, but was unfortunately stopped by a Reading player and pushed out just inches from the line.
Final score: Aldershot& Fleet 5 Reading 5.
Match 3: Aldershot & Fleet v. Swindon
After two exiting matches, A+F needed a win to have a chance of getting a prize. The Swindon team were a lot bigger than us and had a giant called ‘masher’. Well, we have a giant called Liam! The size didn’t count and A+F seemed half asleep in the first minute as Swindon immediately set an attack. They kept running towards us but couldn’t get through. A Swindon knock-on resulted in an A+F scrum with Ryan taking the ball out and kicking it. Daniel & Ollie chased up the kick as the Swindon full-back just caught it and then being tackled by Daniel. A ruck was set and Swindon won the ball, also kicking the ball but this time to touch. Aldershot won the throw and set up a huge drive which resulted in a Swindon penalty because the team didn’t use it. Swindon were again attacking the A+F defence but we were playing so well that Seb forced the Swindon hooker to drop the ball and give us a scrum. A+F won the scrum and Ryan again cleared with the rest of the team chasing. Daniel managed to turn the ball over and set up a ruck. The ball then came out and Ollie just dived over the tryline. But as we began to celebrate, the ref blew his whistle and disallowed the try because he saw a player fly-hack the ball-but we didn’t see it! That’s rugby.
The two teams battled once again and as the ball was run out, the referee blew the full-time whistle.
Final score: Aldershot & Fleet 0 Swindon 0.
Match 4: Aldershot & Fleet v. Bracknell
Another team we had played before, Bracknell. Mind you, we last played them in U7’s so we still didn’t know what to expect.
Sebastian started it off and once Bracknell got the ball, they kept it. Bracknell ran straight to the Aldershot line. Just as they were going to score, Isaac put in a stunning tackle to narrowly prevent an early try. They constantly pressurised A+F but we held them well and kept the best in the contest at bay. But after a few minutes, Bracknell stopped a scoreless game by easily weaving through A+F. But they had to fight to get there. 0-5.
After the re-start, A+F kept trying and held off the tough opposition with every tackle, with a couple from Alex and Joseph H. by the touchline which stopped Bracknell every time. But just as the awesome pair got ready to devour another victim, the Bracknell wing scraped through and put his team in a comfortable position for the rest of the match. 0-10.
Bracknell then held it to the end even though there were valiant attempts by A+F.
Final score: Aldershot & Fleet 0 Bracknell 10.
Match 5: Aldershot & Fleet v. Grove
The last match was also a tough one and the A+F boys needed that last bit of energy to come out top in the next 10 minutes ahead. Sebastian started it all off and Groves immediately took their chances and ran. The powerful scrum-half ran through the gaps and dived over for an early try. 0-5.
A+F started again and really had to work to bring the Grove pack down. The opposition set up the rucks when they could and kept running hard at the A+F team. Ollie again made a fantastic tackle to push the Grove winger out of the pitch and to win us a lineout. Jack W. threw the ball straight to Liam and the forwards went on powering, searching for points. As the A+F team kept pushing, Grove were awarded a penalty because A+F didn’t use the ball in the maul. Grove took full advantage of it and powered through to score try no.2. 0-10.
A+F kicked off and kept pushing. This time there were several breaks from Aldershot and Matthew even nearly scored unexpectedly. In one of the rucks, the ball was knocked on by the A+F scrum half which resulted in a Grove scrum. They took the ball out and did yet another break. The Grove fly-half then kicked the ball to the corner where the winger was waiting and dived over the line in Paul Sackey style to seal the victory.
Final score: Aldershot & Fleet 0 Grove 15.
Individual comments:
Liam: Great all round and scored our try!
Seb: Was always there in support!
Matthew: A true captain’s performance!
Daniel: Some great tackling and chasing!
Ollie: He couldn’t have played better!
Jack W: Lead the scrums and lineouts superbly!
Jack S: Played excellently at full-back!
Alex: Played like a lion!
Isaac: Tremendous tackling-especially saving a try against Bracknell!
George: Great tackles and bursts of speed!
Ed: A solid performance both attacking and defending!
Ryan: Fantastic tackling and clearing the ball-stud of the week!
Alasdair: Supported everyone’s breaks and showed lots of fab rugby!
Joseph H: Teamed up with Alex to stop the tough Bracknell on the wing!
Joseph B: Great game at scrum half and produced most of our runs!
Zack: Made life hard for the opposition!
James: Excellent play all through the day!
Aldershot & Fleet 0-5 Reading Abbey RFC Tries: NONE
Aldershot & Fleet 5-5 Reading RFC Tries: Liam (1)
Aldershot & Fleet 0-0 Swindon RFC Tries: NONE
Aldershot & Fleet 0-10 Bracknell RFC Tries: NONE
Aldershot & Fleet 0-15 Grove RFC Tries: NONE
Forwards: Seb, Liam, Matthew, Jack W, George, Ed & Ollie.
Backs: Ryan, Daniel, Alasdair, Joseph H, Joseph B, Isaac, James,
Jack S. & Alex.
Well done to everyone and next time, there’ll be some silverware in the cabinet!
By Daniel Lloyd Under 11’s player.
