Match Report Bicester v Aylesbury

Sunday 2nd November 2008 – BICESTER v AYLESBURY away

Match Stats

Starters: Charlie, Giles, Chris, Liam, Ed T, Ed H, Tim, Jack D, Josh, Ryan, Francois, Tom, Jack T, Will, Sam

Sub: David

FIRST GAME START FOR WILL

Ref: Aylesbury

Three 20 minute games were played due to Aylesbury’s large squad of two full teams all wanting a run out.

Pitch Conditions: Wet, boggy, long grass

Game (1) 1st 3rd Bicester – 2 x tries, 1 converted
Aylesbury – 2 x tries, 0 converted
Game (2) 2nd 3rd Bicester – 1 try, 0 converted
Aylesbury – 1 try, converted
Game (3) 3rd 3rd Bicester – 2 tries, 0 converted
Aylesbury – 0 tries

Try scorers: Ed H, Charlie, Giles, Tim (+ 1 conversion)

Overall points total win for Bicester (after the 3 periods of play) 27-19. Bicester won the 1st and 3rd periods of play.



IT WAS A GAME OF THREE THIRDS

Starting with a reduced squad (due to illness, sickness and other commitments) created a situation where several boys were required to play in field positions they were unfamiliar with nevertheless all the squad carried out their duties to the best of their ability, showing great maturity and depth of character. It was a pleasure to see the boys communicating well and helping each other adapt and perform creating a good feeling of camaraderie and team spirit – lets face it a happy versatile group of boys whatever the number will always produce a pleasurable, interesting Sunday morning of rugby.

With the reduced squad numbers the boys had to push themselves hard knowing that they did not have the luxury of rolling subs to draw upon unlike their opponents and this is where we see the fitness levels really starting to make a difference, something that we must keep working on throughout the season on both training days and evenings plus other individual activities in and after school throughout the week.

At times the mornings rugby looked a bit disjointed and did not flow quite as well as we may have hoped causing the boys some frustration. However, they kept their cool and did not give away needless penalties despite Aylesbury repeatedly killing the ball. At the breakdowns there were so many bodies off their feet lying over the ball on the wrong side and interfering with play it conjured up images of how the game may have been played in Webb Ellis’ day! Needless to say the boys coped well with the relaxed law interpretations, kept their heads and played to the whistle even though repeated offences made it very hard to get quick, clean ball to the backs.

In the last 3rd of play we saw the boys having to dig deep against Aylesbury’s second team who although slightly less experienced players, were big strong runners with fresh legs. Bicester showed good staying power on the boggy, wet, long grassed pitch and battled it out to the final whistle gaining the deserved result of another win rounding of an interesting 60 minutes of rugby.