Ashford RFC Under 13s Match Report 16th April 2006

Ashford youngsters get vital seven aside experience

Deal A 7 – Ashford U13 A 7
Deal B 7 – Ashford U13 B 5
Deal A 32 – Ashford U13 B 0
Deal B 0 – Ashford U13 A 29

Ashford prepared for the forthcoming Kent 7 Aside Festival with a series of warm-up matches at Deal. Deal were hosting a day of celebrations to mark the merger of the Deal and Betteshanger clubs. The Ashford U13s provided a series of curtain-raiser matches before the final match between the two Deal club sides.

Ashford’s squad of 15 players were split into two teams to face a combined Deal and Betteshanger side of mixed U13s and U14s. The Ashford A side drew their first match 7-7 before going on to winning their second by 29 points to nil. Ashford’s scorers for the A side were Grant Noremac with 4 tries and Chris Albrow, and Adam Batt with a try apiece. Chris Albrow, Rory Beech and Louis Burdon also managed a conversion each.

The Ashford B side took the lead in their first match with a try by Tom Collins, before losing 5-7. In their second match and short rest meant they had little time to recover before losing 32-0 to the Deal A side.

This weekend Ashford U13s send a squad of 12 to the Kent sevens festival at Canterbury.

Ashford RFC Under 13s vs. London Scottish

Ashford RFC Under 13s Match Report 9th April 2006

Ashford youngsters win at the illustrious home of the Scottish Exiles

London Scottish U13s 21 – Ashford U13s 32
With the school holidays under way Ashford were missing a total of 12 boys – 9 of which have made regular appearances in the starting line-up – for the long trip to Richmond. The Ashford forward pack had an improvised look about it, with wing forward Glenn Caton moving to No.8 and taking on the mantle of pack leader and vice captain for the day.

London Scottish are a club with an illustrious history. Not to be intimidated, Caton had the Ashford pack fired up from the off and early forward pressure saw prop Danny Herriott crash over to open the scores on 6 minutes. Ashford resumed the pressure on the restart when the ball was spread wide and winger Gareth Jenner was bundled into touch just 2 metres short. Ashford then camped on the London Scottish 5 metre line. When Scottish spilled a lineout, prop Tom Collins snapped up the loose ball and fed hooker George Sladden, who dived under a pile of bodies to score Ashford’s second try on 11 minutes.

At this point, Ashford inexplicably allowed London Scottish to take the lead when soft tackling saw the exiles score converted tries under the posts on 17 and 20 minutes. Shortly after, normal service was resumed when first Jenner and then Herriott scored tries which gave Ashford a 20-14 lead at half time.

The second half was a much tighter affair than the first. The Scottish half time team talk appeared to have focussed on nullifying Ashford’s superiority in the forwards. Despite the Exiles’ efforts, on 29 minutes, lock George Woodrow burst from the halfway line and sprinted over to open the second half try scoring. Just 4 minutes later, Ashford took a ball against the scrum-feed 60 metres out and moved it to outside centre Grant Noremac. Noremac showed his power and pace to arc around the Exiles’ defence and dot down under the posts. This time the try was converted by Louis Burdon.

With 12 unanswered points in 8 minutes, Ashford now had a 32 – 14 lead and again allowed their concentration slip. Following a series of tap penalties, Scottish broke through to score a third converted try. The score forced Ashford to regain their concentration and allowed the boys to earn themselves a highly creditable win.

Player of the week was Danny Herriott