Wasps U15 V Harrow U15 Away

Wasps U15 V Harrow Away 23 November 2014

The boys can be very proud of today’s result. The margin was narrow (10-7) but it's a fantastic win given the very tough conditions. It could not have been worse: it was freezing, pouring, blowing cold and muddy. And the oppo was good and motivated. It was not a day for the feint hearted or for champagne rugby but who cares? And if some say only victory is beautiful I do not know if it's always true, but when so hardly achieved I tend to agree; so a very big congratulations to the 18 players who turned up this morning and stood up to the horrendous conditions, the bitter cold and a strong opposition.
Lessons of the game: a dominating scrum, a rather good use of kicks and chase, a very clever decision making / taking a penalty, a strong defence overall (the only relative weakness allowed the oppo to score a try but that was almost an exception in this game) and a try scored at the end of a nice backs move/run. We also had a few great break runs and some turnover balls (but too few of those!).
One or two things we need to work on again: decision making/position in relation with the breakdown and rucks in particular. Again, too many balls given back to the oppo, because we are not quick enough in support of the ball carrier and not clinical enough in our clearing technique. In too many occasions a few players did not commit quickly enough or at all. We need also to improve our coordination in the LO. Something we haven't worked on much these past sessions. It showed! Finally if we were raising the level of our tackling ability across the team it would be another step forward.
Overall a few fine tuning points we need to address but that can't overshadow an outcome achieved thanks to a great courage.
Just one point I almost forgot...too much energy is wrongly channelled through challenges towards the oppo, "banter", etc. That's not acceptable and should not occur again!

Fab