JUNIORS NEWS 2009/10 SEASON

U16 MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 7th MARCH

Grasshoppers 10 Hemel H 27

Grasshoppers emerged from a long period of hibernation to face a big blue sky; a warm, welcome sun and the joint League leaders Hemel Hempstead. After such a long weather related lay-off, it was most encouraging to see a practically full squad of youths, rounded up in a way that would have had sheepdog trial enthusiasts everywhere doffing their caps in admiration.

However, with Marion having delivered our flock safely into the pen, we did not anticipate that they would then behave like lambs to the slaughter. But so it was in the first half as Hemel ran up a bonus point tally of four tries, against a solitary effort in reply from "The Boy With The Drag-On Tattoo", Crusher Louis Beard. Hemel deserved their half time lead; they showed clear dominance up front in the set pieces, with a particularly strong scrum and an ability to use the ball cleverly in the backs, using a strong following wind to full advantage. However, Gs did themselves no favours; defence was at times optional and whilst there were strong individual showings from a number of players, the team just did not work together. When they did, the results were impressive and brought cheer to the faithful on the touchline. The try when it came was a classic, from a multi wave attack by the forwards, each participant making good ground and keeping the ball alive until the final surge over the line. The second half was a much more balanced affair with the boys determined to restore some pride; in fact the period finished even at one try apiece (ours once again from the unique Louis Beard, who somehow, from a tap penalty, managed to make the line underneath a wall of Hemel players). By this time Grasshoppers had really warmed to their task and whilst there were still a number of unfortunate handling errors, the boys did find some of that famous Gs' spirit. Jonathan inspired the rest of the team with an outstanding performance at scrum half and in the forwards Louis Brown was once again exceptional. James and Yun Long, so often the unsung heroes, fought away manfully and were always in the midst of the action; Jimmy and Zak in the pack also looked like they were "up for it" with the former even contributing a handful of his golden (golden ?!) locks for the cause and Jules did very well in the line-out and around the park, disrupting a fair share of opposition ball and generally spoiling in a way that only the French can........(Garry Weir told me to write that; I swear I didn't want to......!). In the backs, Ben acquitted himself well at stand-off, Billy made some determined runs on the wing and Ash was always in the thick of it and on the look out for a quick counter.

In conclusion, well done to all for the splendid second half showing; if we could have two of those every week please.

Joint MotM were James and Jimmy.

SF

U13 MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY

Grasshoppers 31 v Enfield 12

With three fixtures remaining in the Middlesex and Herts League Grasshoppers continued their progress towards promotion with a 31-12 win against an improving Enfield side writes Phill Tait.

Early pressure from Grasshoppers resulted in the home side opening a 12 point lead only for Enfield to fight back and bring the scores level.

In the second half the game could have gone either way but the Grasshoppers backs ran in three more tries. With two more successful conversions by Cushen added to his first half kick Grasshoppers moved to second place in the table.

The happy Hoppers try scores were Jakey Ross, James Gill, Charlie Day, and Lesley Anuju (2)

U14 MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 24 JANUARY

Grasshoppers 17 v Harrow 24

Grasshoppers started brightly in the winter sunshine. Harrow's kick off was caught cleanly, and passed out to Yun Shun who evaded the Harrow midfield to run and score from his own half. Aiden scored the conversion to put us 7 nil up inside 3 minutes.

Harrow responded by tightening up their midfield and the pattern of the game began to emerge. Grasshoppers pack struggled to compete with Harrow's much larger and stronger forwards, we were unable to gain any advantage at the scrum and found it difficult to recycle our ball at the tackle. Grasshoppers were forced to concede several penalties at the breakdown and Harrow scored a penalty and a converted try from penalties.

Grasshoppers defended stoutly and ended the half with one last attack in which Yun Shun made a well aimed cross field kick for Ajay to score neatly in the corner. We ended the first half 12-10 up.

Early in the second half all our backs combined in a crisp passing move which allowed Aiden to score into the corner from short distance. We were beginning to believe we would win when 3 critical injuries within 5 minutes changed the game completely. Our shape was disrupted and before our replacements could adjust to the pace of the game Harrow scored two converted tries. From then on Grasshoppers tackled and scrapped through to the end, but were not able to score again.

A very close game in which our skill and energy would have overturned their size advantage but for the unlucky timing of our injuries.

U16 MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 24 JANUARY

Bank Of England U16s 46 Grasshoppers U16s 17

Despite a number of good individual contributions, Grasshoppers boys found themselves up against a strong BoE unit and as the final score shows, the home side ended up recording a comprehensive victory.

Highlights for the Gs were two bulldozer tries from our very own JCB Louis Beard, splendid place kicking from Max and Ash with 5 and 2 points respectively (a 100% record), fine back row play from Yun and the excellent Louis Brown, solid and determined forward work from Jules, Jimmy, Zak and Erastus, good individual performances from Jonno and Ben at half back and some great cover tackling from Ash, Conor, Max and Jamie in the backs. Mentions too for MoMo, Ali and Charlie who made every effort for the cause.

Yet whilst nobody played badly, overall we did not function as a team and our fitness was lacking. Against a well organised Bank side this was never going to be good enough and going forward we need to transform all this individual courage and commitment into a more cohesive team approach.

MotM for a tenacious performance thoughout went to Jimmy.
SF

U16 MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 13 DECEMBER

Grasshoppers 44 v Ruislip 0

After a number of match free Sundays it was back to business for the lads this week. Although the squad turnout was minimal and the play looked a little rusty during the opening spells, in the end a comfortable victory was secured. Ruislip began the match well and showed a clear attacking intent as they looked to run from every possible position. In this spell the home defence had to be on its toes but despite the lack of match practice, the Gs were upto the early challenge.

The breakthrough for the home side came after 15 or so minutes when Jimmy was on hand on the blind side to collect some quick ball and he powered over from 15 yards out. This was followed up by a very sharp break from Conor. Collecting the ball in his own half, the trademark sidestep allied with a quick turn of pace saw off the visitors' defence to double our lead to 10-0. Next up was Max with another break on the blind side and despite the attention of three defenders a successful grounding saw us move to 15-0. Lastly Yun Long was once again in the right place at the right time and finished a strong spell of play from the forwards to score in the corner on the stroke of half time.

The second half really saw more of the same; overall the team dominated proceedings but on more than one occasion silly mistakes saw us give up the advantage. First on the scoresheet this half was James, who proved unstoppable from a few metres out. Conor then skipped over for his second try of the afternoon, duly converted by Max and soon afterwards Jules finished off a very stong forward break by once again managing a good grounding despite some close attention from the Ruislip defence. From this score Max achieved an excellent conversion from a difficult angle to put us 39-0 ahead. To their credit Ruislip bounced back and were held up over our line in the final minutes. However, the last word went to the Gs as James was on hand from a controlled forward rumble to ground for an eighth try in the ultimate move of the match.

It was fitting that there was a good spread of points' scorers as this reflected the strong overall performance by the team. The joint men of the match did not feature on the scoresheet but played a key part in the victory. Louis Brown was as always a tower of strength around the park and set a fine example to his teammates. Equally impressive this week was Ben who did a superlative job as stand in for Jonathan at scrum half.and for this game he shares the MotM honours. Well done too to all the others who contributed to a fine victory, namely Ali, Charlie, Ash, Jack, Erastus, Momo, and the very effective front row of Nick, Zak and Louis Beard.

SF

U16 MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER

Grasshoppers 10 v Hemel Hemstead 0 – Match Abandoned. Replay 6th Dec

With a fine selection of beasts on display and a downpour of Biblical proportions, all that was missing was the Ark in our scheduled League match against Hemel Hemstead this Sunday. The match was finely poised with Grasshoppers having repulsed a muscular opening quarter from the visitors, thanks to strong tacking in midfield and a determined forward effort against an impressive opposition pack. As Hemel were held up over our line and a couple of penalties were conceded under pressure, it  was clear that this top of the table clash was going to be a tough encounter. However, this first storm weathered, the Gs began to use the strong wind and slope to their advantage with Conor putting in some very deft kicks to touch. The forwards also began to settle with our scrums looking solid and Jules successfully spoiling Hemel ball at the line-out. Louis Brown was also lively in open play and slowly but surely the game was transferred exclusively to the Hemel half.

The breakthrough came when good scrum ball on Hemel's 22 was taken by Jonathan who skillfully drew the blind side defence before off loading to Conor. His trademark step saw him slip past the last defender and then slide over for the first try. As the conditions deteriorated and the hail joined the wind and rain, Gs were able to maintain the pressure, although to be fair to Hemel it was by this time physically impossible to move the ball upfield against all the elements. This was illustrated as a defensive clearance from the vistors sailed up into the wind, then back over the heads of the opposition and their own try line, where, after a bit of a scramble, Jamie was on hand to touch down.

Before the conversion could be attempted, the ref decided quite rightly that the conditions were now unplayable and we are now set to go again for a replay on Dec 6th. By which time we hope the waters will have subsided.

SF

U16 MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 18 OCTOBER

Old Ruts 37 v Grasshoppers 10

Our already depleted squad found itself further reduced for our trip South of the River to the badlands of Morden. Matters could have been worse had we not persuaded Carl to join us for a debut outing and if Marion had not succeeded in raising Jack from his deep, Sunday morning slumber. So it was that a full 16 made their way to the game. However, this fairly precarious state of affairs was aggravated early on as both Ben and Jack found themselves injured in the first of our three 20 minute periods, such that "Stitches" Max and one Old Rut sub were unexpectedly called into action.

The first 20 saw our hosts gradually impose themselves on the game, as much through Gs' errors as from their own efforts. Once again the opposition pack weighed and measured considerably more than our boys and from the off we came under pressure in the set pieces. However, Dylan and Louis combined well at the base of the scrum to make the most of difficult ball and Conor kicked deftly from hand at stand off. In the pack, Jules, Marc, Yun and Louis all made an excellent contribution but too often the pack's efforts were fragmented, leaving Giant George and the rest of the OR forwards scope to win turnover ball. Despite some solid early defence, in the end the home side prevailed with two tries, thus ending the first period 12-0 to the good.

The second period began badly for Gs when Zak, having gathered very well from the kick-off, found himself abandoned by his team mates. More turnover ball was rapidly moved out and a fine drop goal from the OR stand off saw three more points conceded. Further mistakes under pressure during this spell saw the home side score two additional tries and at the end of period two we were 27-0 down.

However, a combination of mild tetchiness with some of the opposition, Rob's pep talk and Marion's magic Jelly Babies led to a transformation in the third and final 20 minutes of play. With great work from Marc, Zak, Nick and Ryan, the scrum began to provide a more solid platform, whilst in the backs Conor continued to play some excellent football at fly half, gaining impressive territory with his fine right boot. Carl made some determined and probing runs in midfield and Dylan grew in confidence and showed great bravery at scrum half. Jules, Conor, James and Louis put in some spectaular tackles during this spell.
Indeed everyone upped their effort considerably and some spirited as well as good, flowing rugby ensued. Firstly Ali almost collected from a Conor cross field kick, for what would have been a spectaular score. In the end though it was glory to the forwards; a series of powerful surges finally led to an opening for Yun Long who broke through two defenders to score our first in one corner. Then no sooner had this been achieved than we were back in action and James finished off a powerful maul to score in the other corner.

At 27-10, the score was starting to look a little more respectable. However, as the sugar rush fell away, a couple of basic errors let in our hosts for a final say. Despite good cover tackling from Ali, Max and Charlie, ORs found themselves on two occasions with spare men available and two final tries were conceded in the last five minutes.

A big well done to all those who made the effort (including the caffeine deprived grown ups); there were some excellent indiviual performances but unfortunately we were just not there as a team often enough.

Man of the Match for a fanatstic all round performance went to Louis Brown.

SF

U15 MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 11 OCTOBER

Grasshoppers 7 v Farnham 49

The U15’s welcomed Farnham from Surrey League 2 to play our last friendly before our league starts next week. 

Grasshoppers began with our some of our regulars on the sideline, and Farnham started the game very strongly and quickly took control of possession, camping in our half. They proved to be a very well drilled team and we struggled to get our hands on the ball in any field position to use it.

We defended gallantly, with Elliot, Scott, Gurveer, Jamal, Saroop, Joe B, Hashmat and Kieran all contesting impressively against a very strong pack. This meant our backs, Billy Ray, Reiss, Harry, Jayvon, Mickel, Jordan and Buster were constantly defending against rampaging runners. Farnham scored 2 early trys, after which we began introducing Joe T, Stevenson, Drummond, Jonathan and Keshal; making us more competitive. However, through weight of possession and the ability of our opposition, we conceded 4 tries to be 20 to nil down after 20 minutes.

At this point, Grasshoppers woke up with Elliot, Hashmat and Keshal very prominent. We began competing in the forwards and gradually got on top of our opposition. We started to compete in the scrums and took control of the lineouts. With some possession, Billy Ray and Reiss started to organise our backs. Harry, Drummond and Buster started to test the opposition with pop passes and strong runs. With good distribution from Stevenson and great support play, we made a strong break into Farnham’s half. Following good pressure on their lineout, Elliott scored a try, brilliantly converted by Buster, to finish the half 20 to 7 down but back in the game.

We were now competing at the breakdown and getting our hands on the ball and I thought if we scored the next try we could win the game. Unfortunately, Farnham started the second half as they did the first, and quickly got on top.

However, we remained very competitive throughout the second half and defended strongly, with Keshal and Mickel putting their bodies on the line to make try saving tackles. When we got our hands on the ball our backs made strong runs, particularly Harry, Drummond, Jordan and Jayvon. Buster had another good game, spending some time at flyhalf after Reiss took a knock, with Jordan going to fullback for the first time.

We had strong performances throughout the team, with our forwards being competitive and our backs doing well with their limited oppurtunities. Our scrum proved to be very effective against a strong unit and we greatly improved our lineout performance in this game, often getting the ball on their throw, with Joe B, Jamal and Kieran effective.
If we had played the whole game as well as we played the last 10 mi
nutes of the first half, the outcome could have been very different. However, Farnham proved to be far to strong, running out winners by 49 to 7.

The B&F points were as follows:
 
3 Points to Elliot – great game, particularly in support and rewarded with a try.
2 Points to Keshal – big influence once on and really took it to their forwards,
            & Stevenson – another strong all round game linking forwards & backs
1 Point to Hashmat – tried his heart out all game, never easing up,
& Harry – rock in defence, strong running and good distribution skills.    

Really proud of the guys to show such strong character to compete all game despite the scoreline against a very good team. Looking forward to playing against a team in our division next weak.

Jack Littlefair

U16s MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER

Bishop Stortford 0 - Grasshoppers U16 19

What is a Stortford and do only Bishops have them ? This and many other totally pointless questions crossed my mind during an uneventful first half of rugby in the outer reaches of Hertfordshire earlier today. To be fair it was the first game of the season and to be even fairer, a little more than a week ago we were wondering whether we would even manage to get a team together for this opening League match. So the first victory recorded today is for our team managers, coaches and the loyal drivers / parents / travelling support who all managed to rally the "squad" sufficiently to be able to maintain the fixture.

Then we got down to the rugby. Both sides looked a little....OK more than a little...... rusty in the opening exchanges and the play was peppered with errors all round. Neither side managed to secure the ascendency in the first 35, with the Gs' territorial advantage rarely transformed into points scoring opportunities. Which meant that at half time we faced a balanced but barren scoreline and the main task all round seemed to be getting more water on board those dehydrated bodies.

With the match at 0-0 it could have gone either way but pleasingly for those of us who had taken far too many left turns on an already long journey (bin the SatNav Juan...), it was the Grasshoppers who managed to shift up a gear or two. Playing up the slight hill in the second half (mais oui, mon ami) did not prevent the boys from constructing a good tactical kicking game, with Conor's boot pinning BS back in their own half for long periods. Although the scrum was coming under some pressure, Zak produced some excellent ball against the head, Jules did very well in his first lifting line out experience and Louis Beard did an amazing and effective rhino impression for our numerous tapped penatlies. Max put in some sound tackles in midfield whilst Jack and James worked very hard around the park in extremely hot conditions.

After Jamie had very nearly opened the scoring with an excellent chase to a grubber kick, the breakthrough finally came with a determined run from Ash who stormed through a number of the covering defence to open his account for the team.................about time Ash ! Jonathan converted to make it 7-0. We managed to maintain the pressure throughout the rest of the half, when the play really started to come together although one back row forward decided to hog the limelight during this spell ! Firstly Yun was perfectly positioned to collect an excellent offload from Conor after one of his dancing runs, from which he made an unstoppable charge to the line. Then some five minutes later, our man was on hand after a sustained period of Grasshoppers pressure to drive over for his brace. A further excellent Jonathan conversion brought us to 19-0 and a great first League result.

Special thanks and mentions too go to Ben and Ali on their very creditable debuts and congrats to Marc for his 100% record as captain; nice one skip....long may it continue ! Thanks too to Nick and Louis Brown for being our subs / additional support on this occasion.

Joint MOTM were Yun Long and Conor.

And at the end of it all, the main task all round was to get some liquid on board our extremely dehydrated bodies............

Well done all

SF

U15s MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER

Staines 0 Grasshoppers U15s 51 v

The U15’s travelled to Staines RFC to play our first game of the season in good conditions, against a team promoted from our division last year and against whom we had a 17 to nil loss in our league fixture last year.

We welcomed Harry as our only new player and had Gurver back after missing the last half of last season.

Grasshoppers started the game very strongly and quickly took control in the forwards, with Keshal, Elliot, Scott, Joe T and Jonathan dominating in the tight and Hashmat, Joe B and Stevenson controlling the loose. We got on top in the scrums, rucks and mauls and this allowed us to run the ball through our backs at every chance.

With Thomas providing good service to Reiss, our standoff was able to control the game, releasing our backs to continually make strong runs with Harry, Drummond, Jordan and Mickel all prominent. Buster was in great form at fullback constantly running the ball back with numerous broken tackles.

During the half we were able to use our bench as rolling subs and when Gurver and Saroop joined our forwards we were able to add to our power. Billy Ray took control at scrum half and Jayvon took his chance on the wing.

As we dominated possession we were able to play the game in Staines half and although they defended gallantly, we eventually crossed the line.

We scored first half trys through Hashmat, Stevenson, Drummond and Keshal; and crossed the line once in the forwards to be held up and Jayvon looked to have scored but had been pushed into touch. Together with Buster’s conversion the halftime score was 22 to 0.

In the second half our dominance continued and we crossed for a five further trys, through Keshal twice and Hahmat, Harry and Jayvon, with Buster getting two further conversions.

Final score 51 to nil to Grasshoppers, although this did not reflect Staines efforts.

We did not have a weak player on the field and had so many strong performances that it was exceptionally hard to pick the Best & Fairest points.

It was Elliot’s best game in a year, Keshal scored three trys, Hashmat two and Jayvon got one and could have had three. Harry had a great debut, Saroop had his best ever game and Reiss controlled the game very well.

The final decision was:

3 Points to Buster – great running game and always in the right position.
2 Points to Drummond – very strong running game and good distribution, & Stevenson – strong all round game linking forwards & backs
1 Point to Hashmat – usual busy game and involved in everything, & Elliot – great game in the tight and strong running all game, & Harry – rock in attack and defence with good distribution skills.

Really pleased to get the season off to such a great start.

Jack Littlefair

U14s MATCH REPORT SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER

Weybridge Vandals  12 - Grasshoppers U14 35

Our season got really got started on Sunday morning at Walton on Thames.

Weybridge took the kick off and chased the loose ball deep into our half. Grasshoppers forwards calmly tidied up the ball and presented the ball cleanly to Yun Shun who made a short dart up the blind side and sucked in the Weybridge winger. A well timed pass to AJ left him in space with 60 metres to run to the line. He sprinted all the way to score the first try with less than a minute of the game gone.

From the re-start Grasshopper's dominance continued, our forwards were concentrated and committed, getting to the breakdowns in greater numbers and showing better technique in winning and controlling the ball. Only two phases after the re-start the Weybridge defence had lost its shape and Yun Shun had space to run through the centre for the second try. The same pattern of play enabled Leon to go under the posts for the third try and then Aiden to run into the corner for the fourth try with only 15 minutes gone. After the fourth try Weybridge rallied and started to get back into the game, we no longer were dominating up front and Weybridge looked more energetic. We were forced to defend for the rest of the half and allowed Weybridge to score two tries to make the score 12-20 at half time.

After the interval G's had regained their energy and concentration and were able to control the ball for the first 15 minutes of the second half, scoring 3 more tries. One more for Leon and two more for Yun Shun. After the 7th try Grasshoppers seemed able to control the ball and forced Weybridge to defend right up to the final whistle.

 

A great win and perfect preparation for next week's league match.