South Come close in Cup Match

the quarter final of the U13 plate was played on the first team pitch in windy but dry conditions. South failed to deal with the Syston kick off initially and after a series of attacking scrums Syston crashed over for an uncoverted try 0-5 to Syston.From the restart aggressive south defence along with some strong running led by w. Bass and R.Chapman had south camped in the Syston 22 for 10 minutes and on the stroke of half time B.Cooke scored an unconverted try to go in at half time 5-5.

Second half started with more aggressive defence , counter rucking and strong running from the south pack which led to B.Cooke burrowing through the middle of a ruck to score a second unconverted try in the corner. 10-5 to south and the support werebeginning to sense an upset. Syston came back strongly and following a series of penalties awarded by the refereethey scored their second try near the posts which was converted taking them into a 12-10 lead. Unfortunately the referee had failed to notice that at one time during this succession of penalties Syston had 16 players on the pitch and the play should have been bought back.

With South now chasing the game they tried to run from their own 22 and following a hack through the referee made his second bizarre decision when he was the only one both on and off the pitch who thought that the Syston player had beaten J.Vaughan to the touch down putting Syston in the lead 17-10. The final 10 minutes of the game led to south putting pressure on the Syston linelooking for the equalising score which they just failed to get. This was probably the best performance this particular side has ever put together in what was a highly entertaining game and on another day the result could have been different.

the team need to use this as a good base to work with their coaches and build on the potential shown to continue their developement after Christmas.

Man of the match: The whole Forward pack for out playing a much bigger Syston pack in all areas of the game especially the scrummage.

Well done all who played

(REPORT KINDLY SUPPLIED BY M.Lewis)