Stroud do the double over local rivals Minch

Minch brought the weather, Stroud brought the rugby.

In weather more reminiscent of the away fixture at Minch in January, Stroud did the double over their local rivals.

There was an ominous sign during warm-ups lead by Chris. "All Hail the Team" came the shout from the kids, 5 minutes later
the heavens opened and said hail descended and forced everyone under cover for 5 minutes.

In the first game Stroud were quickest out of the blocks. Not sure if it was the bonus of 'only' 2 warm up reps and the saved energy or the
desire to impose their authority on the fixture.

It started with 3 good tries. Tom S ran one into the corner, then Archie at scrum half went in the opposite corner, and then William went over to give Stroud a good advantage.

Minch were not phased by this and came back strong and were camped on the Stroud try line. Good tackling in the corner forced a Stroud lineout. Liam had a great take, quickly passed it to the backs and they zipped it through all the hands out to Lewis on the wing who ran the length of the field to score in the corner, just outrunning the desperate last tackle by a valiant Minch player. Jo the ref showed great speed to keep up with the move - will this be the case 3 years from now when they're on the bigger pitches and (Carl) Lewis is even faster ??!! ;-)

To close out the half Stroud scored another try, again by William, to give them a stunning 5-0 lead. One of the best halves of team rugby we've seen the boys play this season.

The 2nd half was a much closer affair and Minch did themselves proud to come back strongly with 3 quick tries and start to put an element of doubt in some of the parents minds as to who would win this game. At 5-3 up Stroud re-found their confidence and Rory scored a good try to give them a gap. Minch didn't lie down though and pulled another try back at 6-4. Stroud were saved by the final whistle and the first game was in the blue corner.

The second game was the opposite of the first game. A hard fought first half, and then a number of tries in the second period.

Stroud scored first with Tom S again spotting a gap, evading a few tackles and scoring in the corner. Minch were not going to allow a repeat of the previous game and came back with some great flowing rugby and kept the pressure on Stroud. Minch got a deserved try and made it 1-1. Before the half was out though Liam went on a great barreling run and refused to go down under contact and scored the try to give Stroud a 2-1 lead at the half.

The 2nd half was more comfortable (for the parents watching!). Liam again scored another try, somehow keeping the ball alive with forward progress and good support from the rest of the forwards. Arthur in the backs then scored his customary 2 try's from distance. Minch clawed one back to make it 5-2. To show the quality in depth Stroud have their next try was scored by new boy Luke who took it the width of the pitch to score his first try for the club in the corner.

Throughout the 2nd half Tom O in the forwards was having a storming game with good lineout throws, hard tackling, and great loose ball playing falling on anything within reach - often head first - long live the skullcap. The other Tom in the forwards was also having a great game with punishing tackling and running. The last of the Tom's - Tom H - wasn't to be left out and had a few sniping runs, making good distance with great cutbacks to make the cover tackle miss. If Stroud did Saturday night telly then this could easily have been "The Voice" and "Team Tom", but we don't like rubbish telly and we're a team - all hail the team! - so enough of the poor comparisons and back to sports reporting....

The final try of the game was scored by Lewis on the wing again. In a move more reminiscent of local legend Jonny May of Gloucester he ran the ball backwards, then sideways, then changed direction and went back in the opposite direction to find the space he needed. 30 yards of forward progress for about 100 yards of running. The ref had cottoned onto this and just stood in the middle of the pitch to minimise the amount of ball chasing he had to do.

The final whistle blew and it was a 7-2 victory to Stroud. Not to let us down the hailstones returned to abandon any chance of a 3rd game. Instead everyone ran to the clubhouse to have celebratory birthday cake (thanks Alex) and hotdogs.

Both games can be summarised as a battle of good forward play, good handling by the backs, and phases of great tackling, and then the obligatory missed tackle or three!

Well done team - all hail the team ! Thanks to Minch for competing hard, playing great rugby themselves, and forcing our boys to have to up their game to come away with 2 victories.

Photos to follow possibly....

For Minch's U10 website go to (no match report up for them yet as of Sunday night).

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/minchinhamptonrfc/m/team-latest-72526.html