At the edge of the map, on green dragon lane and nearly to world’s end (according to google maps at least), the boys ran in to one of the physically biggest teams we had run in to all year. There were even a few questions from parents at the warm up - “that team are a different age group?”. Unfortunately, no, but the boys were ready to take on anyone.
The plan was for three 20 minute matches, rolling teams in and out. The first match started with a bang - instantly under pressure off the kick-off, flying backwards at rucks and conceding an early try. The Grammarians team were taking full advantage of their size advantage, committing 4+ players to the breakdowns, and really dominating as a result. Hampstead couldn’t keep the ball for a second phase, and the old grammarians aggressive running with front foot ball was punching holes in our defence. Though the boys did manage to stem the bleeding a little bit, it was only slowing the scoring, and ended up losing the first session badly.
The break allowed us to talk about how we were going to deal with the ruck pressure (getting there at speed with bodies and then getting the ball out as quickly as possible), and the boys started the second much more strongly. Scoring a couple of early tries with the ball spinning wide booster the confidence, and they managed to build the pressure. Getting the ball out quickly allowed them to find the holes in the defence, and ended up winning the second stanza comfortably.
Last round and all to play for - could see the fatigue starting to bite across both teams, but the game had settled into the rhythm - Hampstead winning with speed, Old Grammarians with power. This round was much tighter, but Hampstead probably snuck across the line with the wide tries being bolstered by some hard running tight to the ruck, sometimes punching through.
Overall it was a great performance from the boys - the first period was a bit brutal, but they really worked hard to problem solve and got their minds around it. For the most part they kept their heads in the game and focused on the outcome , and even though we probably need to do a little more work on the training ground to handle the breakdown, this reinforced that they can run with anyone.