Old Laurentians B vs SLRFC U13’s

Here’s the first half’s match report from me (Gary), the second half from Stevie Burge…

A cold, blustery, wet day south of Rugby at the Old Laurentians’s (OL) ground. OL U13’s players and coaches nowhere to be found… but they weren’t going to escape that easily!
They has a few big units but may be a little too big for the full size pitch, given Warwickshire U13’s are still playing on half a pitch normally, with 12 players… but not today. Although hand-offs and line-outs were not allowed.
South win the toss and elect to start.
Kick-off slightly too long from Callum and OL allowed it to roll in to the try area but Jono was out of the blocks and on him almost before her realized and almost got a hand on the ball before they lazily put it down.
OL took the 22 drop-out against the wind and a great catch from Ollie, who took it right back to their 22.
Ball recycled, ReeceC to Callum scissors with Jack, brought down 15m out.
Recycled again, Charlie took it another 10 before being brought down 5m in front of the posts. Recycled a 3rd time, out to Sam for a fabulous try to the right of the posts.
Conversion missed.
0 – 5 to South.
OL restart kick straight in to Jack’s arms, who spotted the space behind OL and popped a beautiful chip over the top and powered through with Charlie to challenge for the ball; however, the ref saw something amiss and blew up for a penalty to OL 10m in front of their posts.
This was followed by a series of penalties to OL for various reasons only clear to the ref.
OL set piece, with their giant second row, brought down before he got five metres. South forwards sterling work to turn over another ball.
Reece to Jack, battering his through the crowded OL defense to score another, well deserved try under posts.
Conversion missed.
0 – 10 to South
South knock on from the OL restart.
This and numerous subsequent scrums due to knock-ons, all taken against-the-head by South. OL cannot win any ball from the set piece and are suffering badly because of it.
From the 3rd or 4th scrum, ReeceC to Callum, who streaked straight through the middle, excellent direct running, before finally being tackled on 22 but South knock-on again, scrum OL.
South take it again, against-the-head again and move to 15m out but due to the conditions, consecutive knock-ons occur.
George taken off temporarily because of a nose bleed.
OL win the scrum 15m from their posts and kick for touch but miss, the ball bounces kindly for Sam who catches it at pace and leaves the tacklers in his wake to score a fabulous try 10m in from the left hand corner.
Excellent conversion from Callum, who’s rapidly becoming the South long-distance place kicker!
0 – 17 South
South again knock-on from the restart.
OL win the scrum but big tackle from Jack and with Myles following up, South get the turn over ball. ReeceC with a fabulous pass to Callum ono our 10m line up to the OL 10m line where he was finally brought down.
Penalty for something to OL.
Injury to an OL player, so Jono off to even up the numbers at 14-a-side.
Another penalty to OL, another for being a afoot inside 10m when it was taken.
Thumping tackles from Morgan result in turn-over ball for South again. Cameron batterer is way to 15m out but poor pass to Charlie resulting in another knock-on.
OL win the scrum but are unable to escape their try area after taking it in and give away a 5m scrum to South.
South win the ball, ReeceC out to Callum on the blind side to score the final try of the half in the left hand corner.
Conversion missed.
0 – 22 South at half-time.
Over to you Steve, also at the pitch-side but now at the other end for the second-half…

Thank you Gary,
2nd half started with South playing against the wind and driving rain.
OL kicked off which resulted in a scrum following a dropped ball from South. However South started strongly again with Charlie (Jean Pierre Reeves – a star flanker from the 70s and 80s !!) spoiling the OL ball and making a real nuisance of himself to the OL back line.
OL rallied though forcing a penalty at the a South 22. Souths defence was solid though and GHD resulting maul ended with a scrum to South.
An excellent planned X1 move from Callum and Jack resulted in jack bursting through and racing 50 metres to score under the posts for his second. 27-0
Callum slotted a tidy conversion. 29-0 to South.
Restart
South spilt the restart but South proving powerful in the scrum with some great hooking from James winning us ball. The ball was fed wide to the right wing where we saw some beautiful handling play from Zack and Ollie, showing real skill with a greasy ball. OL defended valiantly leading to a South scrum only after the referee had managed to catch two minutes under Jacks mum umbrella ! It was raining heavily !!
This scrum lead to a fierce attack down the left wing. Jack took possession and produced a very deft kick over the defence towards their posts and outpaced the defence to win the race for the touchdown and score a cheeky hatrick !
34-0 con missed
Play continued from the restart and some poor discipline lead from South led to a series of penalties for OL. We managed to stop them and a storming run from Joe Hunt ( great to see the big fella back ! ) up the middle took a number of OL tacklers to bring him down.
OL were still working hard and there giant second row was testing our pack with Cam and Morgan working like a WWE tag team to stop him in his tracks with some crunching tackles.
Scrum to South ball moved wide to Will who made some very impressive runs at the OL defence.
Charlie and the pack we recycling good ball off loading to George who opened up his gears, driving forward to their try line for a great try only to stop short at the five yard line ! Clearly pre-planned ! To allow jack to pop to Zach, who drove strongly to the line for his first try for the team !! Well done Zach ! Great technique George for the ten press ups the ref made you do !!
39-0 con missed.
Play continued from kick off but an injury to OL saw the brolly lady on the pitch again ! The ref was loving it !
More strong tackling and ball stealing from Reece in our 22 stopped a series of OL attacks but a loose ball was grabbed by OL who put some nice passes together to squeeze a try over the line and convert the kick to make the final score
39-7 to South !
Lads a fantastic performance from
all of you again in horrible wet conditions. It is an absolute pleasure to watch you play. You are an absolutely credit to South Leicester RFC. Well done !