As the rain pelted down early Sunday morning, parents of the Under 12s prepared to watch a rain driven match. Fortunately, the weather held for the entire game and it was a joy to spectate for all. As the whistle blew for kick off, Woodham had an early chance with the ball shipped out to the wing from Jack C to Byron and then to Josh. Unfortunately, the ball was then lost forward. Scrum to Basildon. Maintaining his tackling prowess from last week, Kenny B made a fantastic tackle allowing Byron to score the first try. 0-1 SWFRUFC.

Following an amazing ripped ball from Charlie, the ball was passed from Byron to Jack B before the ball was lost. Thomas managed to regain the ball for Woodham with great rucking, shipping the ball out to enable Josh to score. 0-2 SWFRUFC. With Dan acting quickly on the scrum, more skilful rucking, tackling into touch from Kenny B, quick passing allowed Byron to score his second. 0-3 SWFRUFC.

From the restart, Jack C made a ground gaining run. After a scrum, the ball was quickly passed from Josh to Byron to Jack to Alfie, who made the score 0-4 to the Woodham boys. Thomas and Jake were applying increasingly successful pressure to their rucking. A penalty to Woodham saw the ball passed to Jack B, who then ran in his debut try. 0-5 SWFRUFC. Kenny R made fantastic gain from the restart and with the boys using the width of the pitch, the last try of the half was scored by Josh, who somehow managed to chip the ball to himself and sprint to the try line. Halftime score 0-6 SWFRUFC.

Quick passing from Alfie to Dan enabled the ball to be shipped to the wing and back to Archie who went over for Woodham’s seventh try. Basildon stirred themselves and valiantly fought back scoring a well-worked try. 1-7 SWFRUFC. Woodham went through a few minutes of scrappy play before Jack C made a charging run but was tackled into touch. Next, Jared took the ball down the wing before being tackled into touch. Dusting himself down, he put himself right back into the thick of it and ran down the wing again, almost to the try line, before being put into touch again by another crunching tackle. A string of successful passes gave Josh the ball who ran it over for his third try. 1-8 SWFRUFC. Close to the end of the match, Felix made a good drive so that Charlie could make a weaving run to score the final try. Final score 1-9 SWFRUFC.

Well played boys! Excellent passing, tackling and rucking this week. Keep working on that communication.

Player of the match: Jack B for his excellent pitch coverage and debut try score.
Squad: Alfie, Archie, Byron (C), Charlie, Dan, Felix, Jack C, Jack B, Jake, Jared, Josh, Kenny B, Kenny R, Tom.

Training next Sunday and away to Harlow the following week.