Stroud Dominate Dursley

On the hallowed turf that is Fromehall Park senior pitch the Under 11's had a great chance to show local rivals Durlsey how to play team rugby. Stroud would have to re-organise though because fly half Will was injured so Tom (aka Dave) stepped up and took the responsibility of leading the backs and kicking from hand.

Game 1
Stroud were off to a good start with both forwards and backs playing at a high intensity and winning the ball at the breakdown. From a lineout Stoner made good ground and with good support from the rest of the forwards they got it down to the try line and Will scored a good try in the centre to give Stroud the advantage 1-0. Straight away Dursley came back strong and a long run from their winger gave them an equalising try in the corner.
The Stroud scrum was doing very well but Dursley were stopping our backs with good tackling and also kicking the ball well to keep the pressure on our backs. Stroud kept attacking though and did some switch and loop moves as practiced in training to help confuse the Dursley players. This gave us good position and gave Will the chance to score his 2nd try of the game. The game was stopped while all parents and players observed the 2 minutes silence for Remembrance Sunday. Half time was taken with Stroud leading 2-1. Nice to see a quick start from the boys.
2nd hald started with winger Luke and Tom O having some good runs. Fly half Dave had a good attack but Dursely did well to hold him up and stop him grounding the ball for a try. Dursley then got jinxed by the injury bug and one of their players went off with an ankle injury and got taken to A&E for a precautionary check up.
Stroud had a good scrum and the ball went out to the backs and George scored in the corner to give us a 3-1 lead. Stroud kept attacking and Arthur and Dave made some good ground and Alex was denied a try in the corner by knocking on slightly when picking up the loose ball. No biased home advantage refereeing from Jo !
Dave and Arthur did a lovely switch move and the ball came back to Dave who off loaded to winger Luke who scored in the right corner to make it a 4-1 Stroud lead.
Dave was having a great game for his first time at fly half. His kicking from hand at penalties was giving us good yardage and allowing us to keep the pressure on Dursley. Just before the final whistle another Dursley player went off injured. Final score 4-1 to Stroud.

Game 2

Dursely to their credit had a really strong 2nd game overcoming the disappointment of losing the first game and also having a number of players suffering injuries.
Dursley kept attacking the Stroud line and good defensive tackling kept them out. From a scrum the forwards won the ball and the backs did a great job getting into the Dursley half. Keeyan had a great run and was pushed out of bounds on the try line. Stroud kept good pressure on the Dursley try line. 2 more Dursley players were carried off injured. The toll of the constant tackling was starting to take effect. Dursley were playing really well in the line outs but Stroud were able to stop them making much yardage by pushing them out of play a number of times. It was great to see the forwards using the skills that coach Chris O had passed onto them in recent weeks. At half time the score was 0-0.
2nd half was always going tobe close. Alex had some good tackles on the wing and a good run to the corner. The forwards then won the ball and the ball went all the way to the left, and then it came back to the right and Arthur scored the try in the right corner. 1-0 to Stroud.
Dursley kept their heads up and came back strong. Stroud did well to get a turnover in a scrum and Archie made 20 yards on a sniping run. Dursely came back attacking and good Stroud tackling kept them out. Stroud then won another scrum and Dave kicked long for touch and the final whistle went for a 1-0 victory to Stroud. A close pulsating game. Well done boys.

Man-of-the-match awards went to Dave in the backs and try scoring Will T in the forwards. Everyone played great though and it was a real team victory. Best rugby we have seen so far this season.

Dursley match report at http://www.dursleyrfc.co.uk/news.php?id=744