Match Report Grasshoppers U13’s 10 February 2008

Ruislip B Nil v Grasshoppers 39

The U13’s played away to Ruislip B in our sixth League game on Sunday, in heavy ground conditions, needing to win to keep our promotion hopes alive.

Grasshoppers started the game very strongly and quickly took control in the forwards, allowing us to run the ball through our backs at every chance. We made several bursts into there quarter within the first 5 minutes with Mickeal, Travis and Boyd all making long runs and Jack nearly scoring in the corner.

Our tight five of new prop Jack J, Scott, Jack, Saroop and Joe B quickly got on top in the scrums and lineouts and Grasshoppers started to dominate possession from the rucks and the mauls, with Kieran, Mickeal and Stevenson working hard.

Our halves, Billy Ray and Ollie enjoyed the good service and were all to setup play well for the outside backs, with Boyd, Travis, Buster, Thomas, Raess and Reiss all getting opportunities to run with the ball.

After a few good runs Mickeal made a diagonal burst, passing to Raees who was pulled down close enough to the tryline to smell the white paint. From the ensuing scrum, Grasshoppers put on one of their backline moves and after a good feed from Billy Ray, Travis made a strong run to dive over for a try.

We were camped in Ruislip’s quarter and after some good lead up forward work, Billy Ray made a jinking run to dive over and score our second try.

Travis came off injured and Buster grabbed the centre spot with both hands.

Grasshoppers continued dominate possession through our forwards and run the ball through our backs, leading to two more trys by Jack and Reiss.

20 to nil to Grasshoppers at halftime.

We brought on Elliot just before halftime and Joe T, Peter and Saadiq came on at the break, Travis came back on with Boyd moving to fullback to give Reiss a break and Thomas moving to scrum half and Ollie to wing.

Despite all these changes Grasshoppers still dominated play and continued to monopolise the lineouts, where Joe B and Keiran were very good, and the scrums, where our new front rows performed well. We seemed to be winning nearly all the rucks and mauls.

From one set piece Thomas and Bill Ray sent the ball out to Travis to draw the defender and send Buster through the gap to brilliantly sidestep the fullback and covering defence to score under the posts, with Boyd converting.

Soon after this, Elliot made a great run, beating several defenders and carrying some more to score a great try. Not long after this he made an even better run to only be denied a try by the touchline.

By this stage, I took advantage of the rolling subs agreement and put all the players back as I could to give everyone a good run out. This eventually meant that we had several players playing out of position and despite this we continued to take it to Ruislip and dominate everywhere.

Boyd made several strong kick return runs from fullback, Peter made some good bursts and Joe T and Saadiq performed well.

From a good down the line move, Travis was able to take advantage of an overlap and score his second try, which Reiss converted.

Final score 39 to nil to Grasshoppers.

3 Points to Elliot – great running game and lifted the tempo of the forwards, 2 Points to Boyd – very good in attack and defence and played well at fullback, 1 Point to Jack – another strong performance in attack, scrums and mauls, and Buster – good game in attack, scoring a great try, and Travis – set up a great try and scored 2 himself.

Best game we have played since Watford, great team performance.

Match Report Grasshoppers U13’s 27 January 2008

Dorking B 5 v Grasshoppers 17

The U13’s played away to Dorking B in a friendly on 27 January in good conditions despite recent rain, allowing for an open game of running rugby.

Grasshoppers started the game very well and were quickly pressing Dorking’s line. Within a few minutes of constant forward barges, Joe B crashed over after a good run, for the referee to rule the bounced ball had been dropped.

We dominated possession, with our tight five of Joe T, Scott, Jack, Jonathan and Joe B getting on top of the opposition and our backrow of Saadiq, Mickael and Kieran were able to exert themselves around the fringes. Before long we were on top in the scrums and lineouts, as well as the rucks and mauls.

Halfbacks Billy Ray and Ollie were making inroads and began feeding our inside backs, with Travis, Boyd and Reiss all making strong runs. Our wingers Buster and Raees both went looking for work, with each making darting runs. After getting into Dorking’s quarter, we spread the ball well for Ollie to dive over out wide, only for a great covering tackle to dislodge the ball.

Continuing to run the ball while dominating possession and field position, we spread the ball out our backline for Boyd to straighten up and cross over for what appeared to be a try, but it was called back for a forward pass.

At this point we injected Elliot and Stevenson into the forwards and Thomas in at scrum half, which seemed to spark up the attack a bit after these letdowns.

Not long afterwards, Mickael made a great individual sweeping run after some smart work by our forwards and halves, to cross out wide and attempt to run the ball under the posts. Unfortunately, when trying to avoid one last defender the ball was dropped. It appeared not to be Grasshoppers day.

Then just before halftime, after some great lineout work from our jumpers Jonathan and Joe B, we got a scrum close to Dorking’s line. Stevenson picked from No 8 running across field to offload to Travis on a crash ball run to score our must deserved first try.

5 to nil at halftime.

The second half began with Dorking staging a good comeback and Grasshoppers defence was tested several times with their good passing movements.

Then after a good individual run from Boyd, Grasshoppers failed to secure the ruck ball and Dorking made a great 80m counter attack to score despite Reiss’s good cover tackle.

5 all.

Grasshoppers forwards reacted very positively to this setback and again took control up front with Jack, Elliot, Stevenson and Scott very prominent. Joe B , Joe T, Mickeal and Saadiq were did the grafting works and Kieran made some great runs.

We scored an excellent try from a lineout, where Jack took the ball at the front of the lineout to run over 10 metres and force his way over in the corner.

We continued to run the ball through our backline at every opportunity, with Thomas, Billy Ray and Raees all making darting runs. Ollie played a good distributing game with Travis, Boyd and Buster making strong bursts. Eventually this paid off with a good converted try scored by Reiss after a typical long run.

Final score 17 to 5.

3 Points to Jack – excellent strong man game and scored a well worked try, 2 Points to Kieran – easily his best game with strong runs all game, 1 Point to Joe B – good lineout work and strong game in the tight, and Billy Ray – good organising game and controlled the forwards, and Reiss – great try saving defence and strong kick return runs.

Well played game where we should have scored many more points.

Jack Littlefair

Match Report Grasshoppers U13’s 20 January 2008

Grasshoppers 10 v Twickenham B 5

The U13’s hosted Twickenham B in a friendly on Sunday and despite the heavy conditions, both teams played attractive running rugby in a very close, hard fought game.

Grasshoppers started the game well, running the ball at every opportunity. Our new halfback pairing of Billy Ray and Ollie were very effective at feeding our three quarter line with all of Travis, Buster, Tom and Thomas able to make strong runs and Reiss was his usual evasive self at fullback.

Our forwards were caught up in a torrid battle for possession and did well to gain an upper hand over our opponents through good work in tight by Elliot, Scott, Joe, Jonathan and Saroop. In the loose our backrow of Kieran, Saadiq and Stevenson were able to get on top of the Twickenham trio.

After a good run from Buster, enjoying the freedom of playing in the centres, Grasshoppers recycled the ball brilliantly through Scott and Stevenson to gain excellent field position and we were able to camp in Twickenham’s quarter for 10 minutes midway through the half.

Continuous strong runs from Elliot, Kieran and others kept us there and from a 5 yard scrum, Stevenson crashed over the try line, but was held up. However after a few good phases and runs, Grasshoppers spun the ball out wide for Billy Ray to score the opening try of the game.

Twickenham came back very strongly and were able to make some great runs requiring a strong defensive effort from our backs, with Travis, Buster and Thomas making important tackles.

However, if it wasn’t for Reiss’s smart use of the sideline and strong tackling, Twickenham would surely have scored several times.

As it was they were able to camp in our quarter for 5 minutes, mainly through continuous penalties for ruck infringements and score a good try to level the score at 5 all at half time.

At halftime, Jack, Joe and Mickael came on in the forwards and Boyd came on at fullback. Elliot moved to hooker and Thomas and Billy Ray also swapped positions.

Jack, Joe and Mickeal instantly made their presence felt in the tight stuff and together with the other forwards, Grasshoppers again dominated possession and field position to play the majority of this half in Twickenham’s quarter.

Within minutes, we took the lead through a try from Jack when he crashed over after a great run from a penalty.

After this we were awarded several penalties, continually using Jack, Elliot and others as battering rams, but Twickenham’s defence in tight held firm. We continued to recycle possession and while we got over the try line several times through our forwards, we were held up and once Reiss crossed the line but was stopped from grounding the ball.

Much to the frustration of our coaches and parents, our backline received very little ball in the second half, which was a pity as we had continuous overlaps.

However, due to the conditions and a bit of “white line fever”, we continued to play a forwards game, which we did dominate for much of the half.

The final result was a 10 to 5 points win.

Again it was difficult to choose the Best & Fairest points, with several players putting up strong cases. Eventually, after much discussion we came up with the following;
3 Points to Elliot – excellent game in attack and tried new position of hooker,
2 Points to Billy Ray – very strong game organising attack & defence, plus try, & Reiss – great game in defence with numerous try saving tackles,
1 Point to Jack – strong half a game in attack and scored a good try,
& Mickeal – absolutely everywhere for half a game.

Really good close game, played in an excellent spirit, that we did well to win.

Jack Littlefair

Match Report Grasshoppers U13’s 9 December 2007

Ruislip B 10 v Grasshoppers 49

The U13’s played Ruislip B at their home ground on Sunday in a friendly prior to our League game in February. We were looking to continue our good form from last week. Again the conditions were bad, with a heavy pitch and rain.

Our side started the game well, running the ball into Ruislip’s quarter and our forwards moved the ball to a few metres of the try line for Ollie to crash over.

Ruislip quickly replied with a long run from their 6ft 3in No 8, breaking 8 high tackles over a 50m run on his way to scoring a try.

After encouragement from the coach, Grasshoppers picked up their game considerably both in attack and defence. We were able to dominate possession through the rucks and mauls. Our tight forwards, Elliot, Scott, Jack, Saroop, Jonathan and Joe were all very effective in recycling the ball and our loose forwards, Saadiq, Mickeal, Kieran and Stevenson linked well with our backline.

Due to the weight of possession and some individual runs from our inside backs Thomas, Billy Ray, Travis and Boyd, we were able to get into try scoring positions. We scored good trys through Mickeal and Travis (2), an opportunist try from a lineout loss from Stevenson and a great individual try from Thomas after a 60m run.

Unfortunately our outside backs of Ollie, Buster, Tom and Reiss were seeing very little of the ball because of the conditions and the tendency of our players to hold onto the ball rather than spin it out the backline.

By halftime we were dominating the scrums and were well ahead 34 points to nil, with 6 trys and 2 conversions by Reiss.

In the second half the conditions improved somewhat and both sides were able to run a bit more freely. Ruislip picked up their game, particularly in defence, meaning that Grasshoppers had to work a lot harder for trys.

Ruislip scored a second try through their No 8 running down a large blindside from a scrum near halfway, again breaking several tackles.

Apart from this Grasshoppers defence held up well, with Joe, Mickeal, Billy Ray, Tom and Buster prominent in the open and Jack, Scott, Elliot and Stevenson very strong in tight.

We scored another opportunist try from a Ruislip lineout through Elliot. Travis scored his third try after a strong run of 40m and Stevenson backed up a great Billy Ray break to score his second.

The final result was a 49 points to 10 win, scoring nine trys and two conversions.

Again it was difficult to choose the Best & Fairest points, with several players putting up strong cases. Eventually I limited it to the following;

3 Points to Scott – great game in the tight and lead the forwards well

2 Points to Stevenson – great team game in attack & defence, scored 2 trys

1 Point to Thomas – strong game and great individual try,

& Billy Ray – made some great runs, resulting in several trys,

& Travis – strong in both attack and defence, scored 3 trys..

Jack Littlefair.

Match Report Grasshoppers U13’s 2 December 2007

Watford 0 v Grasshoppers 30

The U13’s ventured to Watford for our third League game of the season, looking for our second win to keep our hopes alive. After warming up in the pouring rain, we were running against a strong wind in terrible conditions.

Our side started the game very well and our forwards quickly got on top of the opposition, and within a few minutes Mickeal, starting his first game in the forwards, was able to break free and use his pace to score our first try.

We continually rucked and mauled the ball away from Watford and recycled the ball brilliantly, with our tight five of Elliot, Scott, Jack, Saroop and Joe all very prominent. Our backrow of Saadiq, Mickeal and Stevenson linked exceptionally well with our backline, who received enough ball to function as well as they have all season, in pouring rain!

Halves Billy Ray and Travis were making jinking runs at will and providing good service to the threequarters Boyd, Ollie, Tom and Buster who enjoyed some great space with all making good runs. The handling and support play of our team was excellent, particularly in the wet conditions, and after significant runs by Boyd and Tom, we scored a try by Travis.

Fullback Reiss made numerous elusive kick return runs, which totally nullified Watford’s attempt to make good use of the strong wind at their backs.

We scored a great forwards try when Jack took the ball up, drawing the defence before slipping the ball for our forwards to maul it towards the try line for Stevenson to break off and crash over.

For the last 7 minutes of half Watford kept possession through a succession of penalties and while camped in our quarter couldn’t break our defence.

By half time we were dominating the scrum and lineout, without our normal jumpers, and we were ahead 15 to nil at the break.

The conditions picked up for the second half, but unfortunately this also meant that the wind died down. Grasshoppers replaced Boyd, who had been one of our best in the first half, by moving Buster to centre and bringing on Thomas.

We started the second half as we had the first, continuing to dominate the rucks and mauls and our forwards continued to provide good service to our backs who were able to take advantage.

G’s had some great backline runs and our new centre combination of Buster and Ollie combined well with both making strong runs. Our forwards continued to recycle the ball, with Elliot, Scott, Jack, Saadiq and Stevenson very prominent. Billy Ray and Travis continued to make breaks at will and our back three of Tom, Thomas and Reiss made good runs at every opportunity.

We scored another good backline try through Travis and we scored two very good individual trys through Joe and Mickeal, after great runs of more than 50 metres by the try scorers.

Our defence remained strong throughout, with Stevenson and Joe outstanding and Thomas hitting way above his weight, meaning Watford were unable to penetrate our try line.

We finished 30 points to nil, scoring six trys and getting the bonus point.

Unfortunately Reiss was unable to make any of the conversions, but this was understandable when considering the heavy conditions and the fact that he was wearing his coaches boots.

It was incredibly hard to decide on the Best & Fairest points, with at least half a dozen players included in the discussion, which eventually resulted in;

3 Points to Mickeal – excellent first up game as a forward
2 Points to Travis - controlled backs and game very well
1 Point to Boyd – great first half and willingly replaced.

Outstanding team performance and much needed result.

Jack Littlefair

Match report – Grasshoppers U13 30pts Ruislip B U13 25pts

This encounter marked the very first 15 – a- side match for the under 13 squad, which was played on the 1st XV pitch in front of supporters from both clubs.

Both teams played with determination & skill but with very contrasting styles. Ruislip using their big pack to bulldoze there way through, whereas Grasshoppers relied on the speed & slight of hand of their backs & the driving play of locks Kieran & Jonathan.

Grasshoppers largely dominated the first half, running in 5 well worked tries scored by fly half Travis, 2 from winger Mikel & 2 from full back Reiss, with one conversion from hooker Luke.

Ruislip responded with 3 tries themselves.

Playing against the wind & slope in the second half, Grasshoppers spent a lot of the half defending resolutely against a determined Ruislip side.

Outstanding defence by all the team, especially the back row of Stevenson, Joseph & Saddiq kept Ruislip at bay for much of the game. Only towards the end when legs were tired did Ruislip score.

Grasshoppers did manage a penalty from Luke following great driving play from forwards & backs alike, with notable efforts from both props Scott & Nick & from centres Ollie & Boyd.

Scrum half Billy Ray & winger Jack were always a thorn in the side of Ruislip with their darting runs & willingness to take the ball into contact despite their smaller stature!

The final whistle was greeted with huge celebrations by Grasshoppers & supporters alike.