After a tough start to the season at Cinderford and Cirencester the Under 15’s secured their second consecutive win scoring 8 tries against Royal Wootton Bassett.

A beautiful cold sunny October day, and soft ground after yesterday’s rain, greeted our visitors from RWB on Sunday at Grimsbury Road. The teams were both a little depleted with squads of 14 players each due to half term holidays – both teams lined up to play 14 aside and the coaches agreed to play a seven man scrum with no No. 8.

The Knights started playing up the slight slope but despite this they started fast with pressure on the RWB line. The scrum provided a great platform with a great forward walk securing good ball (a feature of the entire game and the basis of many of our offensive moves). The pressure was relentless with James carrying well and Elliott following up. The ball eventually went loose and was cleared hurriedly by RWB, being recovered by Stav on the 25m line – he was supported well and managed to feed the ball to Billy to open the scoring with a dynamic run from 20 metres out. Mac converted off the bar from a wide angle with a great kick. Dan took the kick off and returned the ball with a good jink and then presented the ball well. Again good RWB tackling forced a knock on but a very strong drive won the ball against the head and great line play from Mac to Dylan fed Billy to pass to Harrison at inside centre to score in the corner.

It was then RWB’s turn to put on some pressure with good work up to the 5 metre line of the Knights, great tackles from Max and Dylan dislodged the ball and Mac fed Harrison who was able to get free and sprint 90 metres to score a second try. From the kick off RWB again put pressure on only stopped by a try saving tackle form OIlie. Great work on the line held up RWB for a number of minutes before they were finally able to score and convert for the first time in the game bringing the score to 17-7 at half time.

The coaches called for more of the same in the second half with controlled aggression in attack and defence.

The Knights started the second half well with a good scrum securing possession and Mac taking the ball forward and a nicely weighted pass to Dylan allowing him to cross from 10 meters out. More pressure from the kick off with a great clear out from James securing the ball. A kick forward was recovered by Mac after two great tackles, Dylan passed the ball to Ollie and then to Stav who crossed for a fifth try.
A good recovery of the ball on the ground by Lee fed the ball to Dylan to pass to Harrison for his fourth try of the day. Another scrum against the head was fed to Josh to run 40 metres, Elliott in support took the ball a further 20 metres to feed Billy to score in a great marauding team effort.

RWB were not done yet though and showed great spirit to take play up to the Knights line. Great pressure was again held up on the line with sheer will and great tackles from Batu, Stav and Dylan keeping the ball out. One infringement too many at the offside line though was punished by the ref with a penalty try. From the kick off great work by Liam allowed a fantastic drive by Max offloading to Dylan to feed Stav for the Knights to have the last score of the day. Mac converted.

The final score was 44-14.

A great all round performance with mature controlled aggression was rewarded with a convincing win. Strong defence in the red zone by the Knights was a great feature of the game as was a strong performance from the scrum to retain their own and frequently win the ball against the head. RWB never gave up and provided good opposition and the game was played in an excellent spirit throughout.

Dylan was awarded MOTM for playing a controlled game with ball in hand out of position at fly half.

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