Under 14’s: London Scottish 43-0 Finchley

On a perfect day for rugby – dry and sunny – the London Scottish U14s put in another solid performance to score seven tries, beating Finchley. 

Overall the team was impressive in defence and attack with particular note to some good rucking and straight running.  Although this was marred slightly in the second half when the team lost is shape and made a series of handling errors.

At the start, despite not cleanly gathering the ball (a common theme on the day), the ball was taken into contact, rucked quickly and passed down the line. Marcel running two-thirds of the pitch was hauled down at the line, but with an outstretched arm scored his only try after just one minute.

After the restart, the ball went into touch.  From the quick throw-in the ball was passed through the backs’ hands to the wing. Seth, with his speed, ran past the cover defence and scored under the posts, which was converted by Ted.

Possession then ebbed and flowed. Finchley getting more of the ball now.  But tackling was good and so was the counter rucking.  Nearer to half-time, at one such ruck, Will turned-over possession. The ball was passed to Thomas who ran straight from 22m to score under the posts, and it was again converted by Ted.

At half-time Scottish were leading by 19-0.

Marcel had taken a knock to his head and after a brief interlude was taken off.  By the start of the second half all the subs were now on the pitch. Two minutes into the second half, stealing the ball from a ruck, Jackson ran in the bonus point try which Ted duly converted.

At this point our backline lost its shape and handling errors crept in.  Finchley also started to play with more purpose, moving the ball forward through its larger players.  Every time London Scottish took possession a handling error ensued.  For some minutes London Scottish did not leave its 22 and for a good majority of that Finchley were close to the try line.  A try looked like only a matter of time.   But after a turn-over on the line, the ball was passed to Ethan who manage to relieve pressure with a kick that took play up to the half-way line.  Scottish managed to gain possession from the tackle.  Ethan was involved in the following move offloading to Konrad who scored.

Shortly after the restart Konrad took possession and, with some strong running, burst down the left hand touch line. Tackled, as he approach the line, he managed to score with an outstretched arm.

In between the tries, there was good straight running from the backs and forwards alike.  In one particular move, Sean showed how difficult he is to tackle making good gains before off-loading to Ethan. Seth chasing Ethan’s grubber kick was hauled down short of the try line. However, nearing the end of the match, Seth scored his second try which was duly converted by Will.

Still with areas to work on but overall another assured team performance.