Wasps U15 V Hemel Hempstead at Home

The League game of today was an incredible display of spirit and
commitment. It ended up on a draw (27 points) but 5 tries and 1 conversion
for each team gives an idea of the fight that took place. The game started
under a beautiful blue sky and if it was not warm, the sun was generously
present. And it started quite poorly for us. We were down 5-0 after a few
minutes and our opposition showed a strong determination, clinical
management at the breakdown and some nice wide balls. But our boys did not
lose their composure and very quickly came back at 5-5. Then it seems the
clockwork came to a halt on our side and the opposition scored 4 more tries an
converted once. We replied at the end of the first half with a converted
try. 12-27. The situation looked challenging but not desperate. We got our first
yellow card since participating in the Middlesex League. Down to 14 players
the cause still did not look desperate,
but quite challenging. But the boys held their ground and no points were
conceded until a well deserved break, but not before the opposition got a
yellow card as well. The second half of the game is of a different fabric.
Wasps at 14 and quickly 15 recovered the ground lost. 3 unanswered tries and
one conversion were scored and most of the time was spent in the oppo camp.
We snatched a draw from victory¹s jaws, when denied a conversion in front of
the post by the referee, on the ground that it took us too much time to get
our hands on a tee to kick the ball and exceeded the 1min or so allowed to
kick! So the game ends up on a draw, but on the basis of the recovery
made by the boys, this questionable denial of our conversion, the boys can
have the feeling that they dominated after a slow start and deserved to
win, which a coach form the opposing team confided to me.
What can we take away from this game: first of all we had several breaks of
the oppo defence with superb ball carrying (Amaru, Ben, Charlie, Vlad, Fin,
Omar, Louis, Bryn) and more than once the ball was kept alive despite the
tackling from the defenders; we performed a few splendid turnovers with a
proper ripping off of the ball (Amari, Axel, Ethan, Max). Their scrum was
stronger but we managed to maintain a decent proportion of own ball on
our put-in and managed to get one ball on their put-in. We had some
brilliant tackles (Amari, Vlad, Omar, Charlie, Louis, Axel, Bryn). But above
and beyond these points, the spirit and the fight despite odds were commendable.
Well done to all the squad!

Fab Susini