Wasps U14 1st XV vs Ampthill

Fielding a team for the Wasps As second league match against Ampthill was our first major challenge due to last minute injuries and unavailability. Many thanks to Jok who juggled with all these difficulties to produce a viable line up and to all the parents that headed up the M1.

Despite this, a brave squad of 17 Wasps faced an Ampthill squad of 22. The match started at high tempo and continued at a great pace with four scrums in the first 5 minutes, the equally match teams vying for supremacy. After great team defensive work and tackles from Ashraf and Chris, Ampthill managed to break through and score their first try and conversion. Undeterred, Wasps replied with great spirit and put the home team under serious pressure resulting in a ruck turnover, a powerful breaking run from Sam with an excellent off load to Ashraf who darted off to score Wasps’ first try in the right hand corner. Fergus then evened the score with an excellent conversion from the touch line.

Wasps’ domination in the scrum put Ampthill under a great deal of pressure and resulted in them making mistakes. Two penalties close together got Wasps into Ampthill’s half where Mark broke through to off load to Alex who passed to Jordon who thundered over the try line to score the second try. Again Fergus slotted the ball between the posts. Ampthill replied with concerted pressure and tested Wasps defence. Yousef and Leo made fine try saving tackles but with a simple overlap they managed to score another try but missed the conversion. The boys worked very hard to defend their slender lead but a minute before half time, Ampthill scored again. It was Wasps 14, Ampthill 17.

The match was still anyone’s for the winning and the second half continued at a great pace. Kai was bought on and immediately made a difference with a fine offensive run and later a great defensive kick into touch. Wasps played several strong phases with plenty of end to end attacks, counter attacks and determined defence. Finally Kai broke through the Ampthill gain line and off loaded to Asraf who took Wasps back into the lead. Fergus added 2 more vital points with another impressive conversion taking the score to 21-17. With several minutes of injury time added, Wasps came under concerted pressure from Ampthill and despite a valiant defence, Ampthill broke through in the last minute to win the match by 3 points with the final score Wasps 21 Ampthill 24.

With a diminished and much smaller squad than Ampthill, all the boys played their hearts out and should be very proud of their performance against a strong side. Wasps earned the respect of their opponents, coaches and spectators alike and gave us all an excellent afternoon of rugby.