Never Say Die

The winter has been quite hard on this young Knights team with lots of games cancelled so it’s been difficult to build any kind of match fitness and momentum since the New Year. With this in mind we were all glad it was dry and we had a 16 lad squad taking the journey across the Avon to take on Old Bristolians. We knew they would be a well drilled side.

The first half was tough for the Knights team to get into the game. We spent eighty percent of the time camped in our own half with Old Bristolians putting pressure on us. Our defence was strong with good tackles and team members committing in numbers at the ruck. When we attacked, we did great inter-passing between the whole team and had eight phases of play, but Old Bristolians drove hard at the ruck, disrupted our attack and ripped the loose ball so it didn’t lead to a score. They were strong on the left wing and passing down their attacking line they ran in four tries from that side. We were unable to slow them down or sure up the left side of our defence even when we had noticed it was a weakness. We need to think tactically in the game and if we see that they are strong on one side we need to put countermeasures in place.
The second half was a much better performance, and we reversed the first half spending eighty percent of our time in their half, but we only managed once to convert the pressure into a try. The referee coach spoke about having best friends who support you on either side and you shout out left or right depending on which side you are on to receive the ball. Don’t forget KBA – keep the ball alive and if you are not winning the rucks look for quick off loads to keep the ball moving fast. This pep talked helped us and our attacking and support play was much crisper, and we produced quicker ball at the breakdowns. Jayden try saw him diving over Christian to get a well-deserved team try after ten minutes of Knights pressure. Thomas put in a lot of consistent tackles again as he did when we played Midsommer Norton so great work from you Thomas! Joshua was stand out in the forwards – carrying the ball, offloading, rucking and tackling. We need all the forwards putting in a shift like Joshua sometimes he got isolated, so he needs his best friends on his shoulder supporting him all the time. Rylee and Theo also made a couple of good carries during the game. At the scrums we need the second rows getting lower by starting on their knees – we noted Old Bristolians doing this which gave them more power when they pushed at the scrum.

In the backs Christian was excellent at receiving the kicks from their kick off and charging into their defensive line. There was excellent switch play on the touchline as Rocco was near to going out of play and switched the ball inside to Christian who stormed up the pitch making valuable yards. Yoshi came much more into the game in the second half moving back into his favoured fly half position, which gave us extra width in our attacking play, but we still need to work on our positioning and support play. We gave the ball away needlessly towards the end of the second half and let Old Bristolians capitalise on our mistakes to run in a couple of late tries, but the second half made Old Bristolians know they were in a game against a Knights team which was equal to them.

Try scorers – Jayden
Coaches man of the match – Christian
Hitman – Thomas
Captains men of the match – Joshua and Yoshi