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Ealing Festival Report

Ealing Festival Report

Lachlan 'Jok' Dunbar19 Oct 2011 - 21:08
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With contributions from Bill Beverley, Rupert Such and Jok Dunbar

Festival Report Ealing Festival 16th October 2011

Due to a welcome change of format the Ealing Festival this year started later with less age groups,the outcome was a far more relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere from the outset. The games themselves were all hard fought and highly physical and I believe there were some sound sleeps sunday night, not least of all from the coaches. Each game was only six minutes each way and the referees had been told to play advantage as much as possible. Consequently hard tackling and keeping possession was the key to success.

Rather than trying to do a blow by blow report, I am will highlight the immense positives from the games and where we, as coaches, need to help the teams develop. There were quite a few changes to both teams due to availability and unfortunately we were only allowed to take two teams. the good news is that we now have such depth in the squad that finding replacements is easy. The really hard part is choosing who to play and where. The selection committee will continue to try though out the season to give the whole squad as many opportunities to get match experience, as we can see from this and last weeks games, this is where the players really grow into their skills and positions.

B’s

Wasps B vs Rosslyn Park B (0-6)
Rosslyn Park proved to be a determined and well drilled side. Their forwards
denied Wasps possession for much of the match and their backs ran forward
and off loaded fast. Despite valiant defense with outstanding tackling from
Nate, Yamato and Theo, Rosslyn Park were 4 up at half time. It does the boys
great credit that they played the second half with heads held high. Tom,
Adrien, Liam, Sam and Max W got really stuck in at the break downs,
depriving Rosslyn Park of some of their first half dominance. Thibaud, Max
K, Tom B and Hugo made some excellent runs and the whole team to defended with
determination and courage.

Wasps B vs Ealing Tigers (2-1)
With substitutions of Mathieu at lock, Oscar at inside centre and Drew at
prop, the team rallied together well for their second match. This yielded
the first try coming from a spectacular run along the right wing by Oscar,
off loaded to Yamoto who smashed across the try line with his customary
fearlessness. Max W made some great penetrating runs into Ealing territory
and Mathieu proved to be epic in the ruck and tackles as well as using his
size and speed in some fine runs. It was an exciting first half with a high
standard of tackling from Nate, Hugo and Max K.

In the second half, Ealing came out strong and counter attacked but were
denied a try by a crucial tackle from Theo. After a few hard phases of play,
scrum half Thibaud scored a second try with an inspired run. Finally, Oscar
prevented Ealing's last play of the match with a perfect kick into the dead
ball line.

Wasps B vs Teddington B (0-2)
Teddington proved to be a large and well organized side who dominated in the
break downs with a defensive line that was hard to penetrate. Despite this,
the forwards worked hard to win possession and the team rallied together in
the face of relentless attack. In one instance, a Teddington attacker was
literally picked up off the try line then harried into dropping the ball.
Teddington's first try came from an interesting decision that yielded them a
penalty. There were some great runs from Nate and Max W that with more
support might have resulted in tries but in a very close contest, it was
Teddington's lion share of possession that won them the match. As ever,
Wasps defended with great character and determination resulting in this
narrow defeat. In the last minute, a crucial, try saving tackle was made by
Mathieu.

The Coaches awards for top players of the B tournament would be:
Forwards:   Mathieu
Backs: Theo
Top Individual Tackler: Yamoto

Honourable mentions also for Dylan at Full Back and Adrien, Tom B in the forwards.

WASPS PLAYER OF THE ‘B’ TOURNAMENT: Oscar

A’s
Right form the outset we knew we had a tough pool although we didn't have to face Rosslyn Park who as ultimate winners of the festival routed every one of their opposition by four, five or six tries. After last weeks draw against Battersea we had a few changes to the team through availability. We had tough decisions as to placing some players out of their preferred choice, every player rose to the challenge and accepted his or her position with a positive attitude. This proves that we have some utilitarian players and not all choices now will be set in stone. We had also agreed to take a bigger squad after last week, as we could see how the intensity of twelve a side could sap the energy. Again when asked to sub, every player did so with good will and a handshake to his or her sub.

Lastly we chose not to practice set pieces in between the games but rather to keep the team warm, they responded well to the team jogs. Psychologically also, no other team were seen running as a tight group around the park and despite a few near misses with posts and a couple of squashed sandwiches we had no major injuries. Testament again to their fitness. Thanks Ian!

Each game was hard fought and as you can see from the score lines very little in it. the only game the A’s let themselves down on really was against BOE as there was a little too much kicking. The team learnt the hard way that kicking has its place, but there is always the danger of losing possession and in a shorter game possession is king!

In each of the games the tackling was fierce and the rucking near on perfect. Through out all five games I counted we only missed four tackles two of which became tries. Our hit rate must have been in the high 90th percentile. Our scrums were solid, immoveable and often won against the head and were commented as ‘well disciplined’ by three of the referees. Our line outs were almost unbeatable and against the head the forwards were highly disruptive, not allowing the likes of Ealing to complete their drilled set pieces that had worked so well on other teams in the pool.

Pool Games
Wasps A’s 1 - 0 Harpenden A’s
Under pressure right from the start, mighty defense with two clear try saving tackles firstly from Eden bringing Harpenden player crashing to the deck with an otherwise clear run to the line and secondly James Pye taking the other winger out into touch within touching distance of our try line. Jamie Dunbar’s try showed great running & vision. 2nd Half saw the Wasps pack exert their superiority. Huge effort by the forwards protecting our ball, stealing Harpenden ball especially by Eden in the line out and breaking gain line, in one passage of play we had 8 phases of possession.

Wasps A’s 2 - 1 Bank of England A’s
Text book start - clean catch from kick-off strong & direct running. Good pressure & when BoE did get ball, great tackling. Special mention to Gus for superb tackle. Held shape & discipline resulting in a try for Nikita. Greta accurate kicking by Fergus relieving pressure.
Alex SN put in a couple of great tackles showing that his defense is becoming as dangerous as his attacking play. More sensible & accurate kicking from Fergus as BoE apply more pressure themselves which does eventually cost us a try. Wasps responded in the best way possible, within another minute, Alex S-N showed amazing burst of speed on the RW to accelerate away from an already stretched defense to score in the corner.

Wasps A’s 0 - 1 Ealing A’s
Fast & furious. Confusion in our defense & some ill-timed kicks led us to concede a very soft try but after that the whole team played magnificently and were the better team for the rest of the game. The defense was amazing, with great tackling and counter-rucking ensuring that any ball Ealing got was never clean. Ealing knew that they had been in a very tough match and probably felt a bit lucky to have come away with a win.

Wasps A’s 0 - 2 London Welsh A’s
Another good start with strong runs from Leggie & Sam A. The scrum worked very well against a much bigger LW pack. Sam B went on some strong runs with a couple of great pick & drives. We showed that we were much the better team in the first half but then got hit by a LW try very much against the run of play. In the 2nd half LW came out stronger and the Wasps defense was really tested. For me, the tackle of the tournament came from James Skinner who was playing this match on the wing. He tackled the largest boy in the tournament and was utterly fearless. A great example to everyone else on commitment and technique as he brought this huge boy crashing to the ground. Eventually, the LW pressure brought them another try but the Wasps team never gave up and were a great credit to themselves and the club in a difficult match.

Play Offs
Wasps A’s 0 - 1 London Irish A’s
Another very hard fought game with more heroic tackling, this time it was Leo Currie's turn to fell a giant. They were well drilled and moved the ball very well but we fought on to the end to earn a very creditable 4th place in the tournament overall.

General
The A squad had a number of new faces both from last season and even from the Battersea Ironsides game and they all acquitted themselves very well. It was great to see Eden delivering on the potential he has shown in training especially given the limited amount of rugby he has played before this season. As a force in the second row and as a fabulous line-out jumper, I hope we are seeing a glimpse of what Eden has to show for the rest of the season. Max R made the transition from B to A and put in a good performance in the front row both in terms of hooking and line-out throwing. He shared the hooker's position with the more experienced James M but James in turn also spent time at lock which is a new position for this age group. James Skinner came in as scrum half and a winger. He showed just what a fearless competitor he can be. I look forward to seeing more of James at this level. Tom Korn has returned to the side and came up to the As as a replacement full-back / centre. Perhaps we forget at our peril what a safe pair of hands Tom has under high balls and his willingness to run with ball in hand. He is definitely another player to watch in the back division.

The Coaches awards for top players of the A tournament would be:
Forwards:   Leggie
Backs: Fergus
Top Individual Tackler: James Skinner

WASPS PLAYER OF THE ‘A’ TOURNAMENT: Eden

In Conclusion
We as coaches need to work on the back play and persuading the players that the best direction to run is forward. Passing as contact is made needs to be encouraged and maybe some cutting in exercises as we run out of space in the corners.

All in all a fantastic first Festival, and a good sign of things to come this season. Every single one of the opposition coaches praised and commented on how close the games were, and even the Welsh behaved the themselves. (Almost!)

Thanks to all the parent supporters Bill, Rupert, Ian, Marcus and of course Donna for providing sympathy when the coaches wouldn’t.

Further reading