U14s - Parklife

"All the passes,
So many passes,
All went through their hands,
Through their hands - Parklife"

A fine day for rugby saw some good handling by both teams.
Evan Rees was a Blur as he opened the scoring with a well worked try, stumbling just short of the line from a tap tackle but doing well to place the ball with momentum. Hamish Mainey slotted the conversion. (7-0)

It was a closely fought game with both sides doing well in the rucks and defending strongly.
Ripon had the edge in the first half though and Titus Baker was next to score, sliding into the corner with a defender on his back, after some nice handling through the back line gave him a bit of space to run. (12-0)

West Park hit back with a good try of their own, covering the entire width of the pitch, to score in the corner, nicely converted. (12-7)

Harry Fern proved to be a valuable addition to the squad, using his strength and speed to get his second try in two matches, handing off a few defenders to close the half. (17-7)

The second half saw a good turnover at the ruck from the Ripon pack and a couple of passes out to Evan Rees who fended off a defender then ran in under the posts for his second. Converted by Hamish Mainey (24-7)

Some crunching tackles and impressive forward play won the ball for Ripon, deep in their own half. Oliver Williams made a great break and did well to present the ball when he was eventually brought down just outside the visitors 22. Ripon were supporting in numbers and Harvey Toomes recycled the ball and went on a powerful run of his own. Good West Park defence kept him out but again good support got the ball out quickly to Evan Rees, who appears to have an obsessive compulsive try scoring disorder, for him to slide in for his third. (29-7)

At this point a number of changes were made, with Ripon using their wealth of subs (in contrast to last week) and a number of players were put in unfamiliar positions, a tactic that has worked well recently.
In addition, a change of pitch due to a West Park injury resulted in a bit of a delay and a disruption to the flow of the game.
The result was that from the restart both teams were a bit more "excitable" and this converted into numerous penalties.

West Park took advantage of the disruption and ran in two late tries (29-17).

Another good team effort by all. Cole Potts tackled well, Hamish Mainey supplied quick ball to the backs and Ted Wainwright had a number of powerful breaks.

Tries :
Evan Rees (3)
Titus Baker
Harry Fern

Conversions :
Hamish Mainey (2)