Conditions overcome by U9s

The U9s visited the pristine turf of Chesterfield, with it's nice, new clubhouse and came away feeling very good about their play.

We were welcomed by a huge Chesterfield squad (numbers wise that is!) of 20+ and agreed to play two matches. This meant that our 10 man bunch would get plenty of game time.

Indeed Scott was able to rotate players so that all of them were to star in a fantastic performance. The conditions made this even more impressive as the biting cold was augmented by a steadily increasing rate of rainfall as soon as we started the match. The Elks were especially good in their ball handling and accuracy of pass, something I emphasised we wanted to see today before the game. In fact the one misplaced pass that I remember led to Devon regaining possession and powering his way to the line.

I don't often pick out individuals for praise - it is a team game that is entirely the drive here. However, Josh really gave a great all round performance for the team. We have seen every aspect of his game excel over the season so far and today it really came together. I don't think he scored, but he was our most stalwart of defenders and made a number of tremendous drives into the Chesterfield defence, one of which included the most exquisite off-load (he made sure it was a quality pass) that took advantage of Matt B's excellent support play and led to another try.

Chesterfield are worthy opponents and had some very good runners who unfortunately tended to drift towards, and inevitably into touch. Perhaps our boys are beginning to get the idea of offering a bit of space out wide and then closing it down to bring in the touchline as the most reliable of all defenders.

At the end of the first game it was unanimously agreed by all the players of both teams, all the parents, all the coaches, passing motorists and even the airplane passengers flying out of sight above the clouds that there was nothing to be gained from continuing with a second game in the awful conditions, especially with a warm, welcoming clubhouse right next to us. Hopefully all the Chesterfield players got enough of a game to make it worthwhile for them.