Another cold and windy day at Woodnook saw the under 7’s boys take on Nottingham Moderns. With 2 teams available again Kesteven looked to improve on last week's performance and prove they are a force to be reckoned with.
Kesteven A 8 – 3 Notts mods
Kesteven won the toss and started with the ball, the first pass went to Hugo Welham and he made a great run side stepping most of the before getting tagged, an offload to Gilbert Hall kept momentum and he went over the line for the opening score. Great defence from K's saw Notts Mods ushered into touch giving the ball back to the boys in black. David Martin restarted play with a nice pass to Hugo, who then carved his way through the defence only to be tagged just before the line. Hugo spotted Connor Smith in space, Connor then surprised us all as he DIDN’T take ‘route 1’ and instead dodged his way past the defence to get the ball over the line. Notts mods were a bit disorganised in play with their players staying bunched together, and K's stayed strong in defence taking some good tags. More great defensive pressure from Henry Davies forced the error from Notts and they again went into touch, the ‘lineout’ was quickly taken and Gilbert with his now trademark dancing feet went over for a try. After another turn over Connor was again found working the space before shimmying over for his second, and Hugo quickly followed that with a great burst of pace and left a trail of dust down the touchline to score in the corner. Notts finally started to make some inroads, but Gilbert managed to get the tag with a fantastic last gasp effort to halt the attack near the line. This only delayed the visiting side briefly and they touched down for their first after some strong running. Again K’s showed some great defending but a little over-excitement cost them as they pushed a Notts player into touch. With possession deep in K's half Notts restarted quickly and went over again for a second try. From the restart Henry Davies made a great powerful run into Moderns half and found Connor in space to round off his hat trick and another try for K's. Notts then caught K's napping and had a storming run through only to be denied just before the line where the ball was dropped, David Martin made a great pick up under pressure and had great vision to spot Gilbert Hall in space and make the pass. Gilbert proceeded to run past several defenders, showing some great side stepping and direction changes to score. Again Notts seemed to be a little disorganised and the ball was dropped from a rather speculative long pass. Ks took the turn over ball quickly and after a lovely pass from Henry, Hugo blazed in for the last try of the game.
Team: David Martin, Connor Smith, Hugo Welham, Gilbert Hall, Henry Davies
Kesteven B 10 – 0 Notts mods
Kesteven won the toss again and started with the ball. Lucas Dean flicked the ball to Ollie Atter, who produced a magical great side to wrong foot the Notts mods defence and put on the afterburner to streak in for the first try. A messy restart from Moderns saw them drop the ball, K’s took advantage as Ollie picked up the ball and make it to half way before being tagged. Matthew Quirk came rushing up in support and took the ball over for the try. The Black Army was again strong in defence with some wonderful tagging from Ollie and Lucas to deny Notts any space and force them over the touch line. Some great interplay between Lucas, Matthew and Edward took the ball forward before Edward found Ollie ‘ever the predator’ Atter who took the ball over the line. Nottingham struggled to find a way through the K’s defence, with the boys stayed organised and getting some great tags before Notts dropped the ball again. This time Edward Arden was there to clean up and run over for the try. There was no stopping a determined Kesteven who were forcing Notts to make errors with a simply outstanding defence, and more tries were scored by Ollie and Lucas courtesy of a dropped ball and some powerful running. Moderns seemed a little bewildered at this point and stayed bunched closely together and ended up passing the ball forward. Edward took the restart and passed to Ollie who found a huge gap and again went over for the try. Last phase of play and Notts finally seemed like they would score only for them to drop the ball, this time Victor nipped in to pick up the loose ball and ran nearly the full length of the pitch to put the final score in.
Team: Ollie Atter, Lucas Dean, Edward Arden, Matthew Quirk, Victor
Kesteven worked well as a team today, their strong defence being the key to victory today. They also showed that every player is capable of devastating a defence and making the gaps the create the scores. Great to see the full squad of boys today full of enthusiasm for the game and a welcome return for Victor, who again showed great strength in defence and a sneaky try. Boys showed great heart today as well as sportsmanship. A special thanks to Nottingham Moderns for making the trip and contributing to an enjoyable mornings rugby. Next week Kesteven are once again at home facing Oakham, this should make for an exciting fixture as Oakham were very strong when they played at the Woodnook Festival early in the season.