Great performance by ring-rusty Fullers

It’s rare to want to write-up a losing game, but Sunday’s defeat to Hertford in the Cup didn’t feel like a loss in many ways.
Having not played in about six weeks, and coming up against a big, match-fit team, I think many of the coaches were worried if the lads would be able to produce a performance at all. The pre-match talks concentrated on commitment and effort, and the lads were asked to go out and give it everything they had.
And they did.
The first five minutes or so of the game must have come as a shock to our visitors. The forwards dominated Hertford’s pack, and Fullers set up camp inside their 22. The rucking was ferocious and a try seemed inevitable. Sure enough, patient play led to the first try of the match when Monty burst through for the first score – duly converted by Max Brown.
Hertford, almost inevitably, came back, and when they leveled the score shortly after, we knew we were on for a good game. Some very fine and intelligent kicking from our fly half was a key factor in this match, and Max Brown deserves a special mention for appreciating the space in-behind Hertford, and getting the ball into touch with some accurate kicks.
Another plus in the first half was the mauling. The work we put in last Tuesday paid off this week. We secured the ball well in the tackle and drove a bigger opposition backwards on almost every occasion (good team work and communication). I felt we were a little harshly treated by the officials for our mauling, and if we are to continue to use this method of attack, we need to listen carefully to the referee’s instructions.
As the half went on, Hertford managed to maintain a spell of pressure that led to another score, and things could have tipped at that point. But Fullerians U13s don’t buckle under pressure in a way they might once have. They came back into the game, and when the forwards had sucked in the defence with some very good ball recycling on the ground, the backs found themselves a bit of space, and Phillip Cokanasiga went through two tackles and got the ball down to make it a seven-point game again at half-time.
In the second half, with the wind against, it was a tough game. Our backs lost their discipline at times – people coming inside to look for tackles they had no right to go and make – and Hertford realised that their best chance to score was out wide. Two rangy, quick backs (quite Colm-like, I thought) exploited their speed to good advantage, and Hertford put on three tries via them. It’s very important when these moments occur in a game that the key personnel don’t start to turn on each other. Poor body language and confrontational language is not what is needed when your team is struggling [we will discuss this at future training sessions]. Once this was squashed, however, the team lifted themselves up again and put in a very good last ten minutes or so and scored again at the end.
A loss is never nice. But a loss where you have played so well against a very tough opponent is something you can be proud of, and I know how much coaching staff and parents alike enjoyed watching the team again after such a long lay-off.
Try Scorers: Monty (2), Phillip.
Conv: Max (2)
MOTM: Monty