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Having had the club cancel the coach to Wakefield, what
sort of a turnout would there be to support the academy side? Taking on a
Div1 first team, who were enjoying their best start to a season for over 5
years.
Wakefield are deservedly in 6th place and playing well!! |
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It was gratifying to see the turnout.
Maybe the club management did not come but the away supporters did. We had
70 to 80 at the game. Wakefield got the game started and the young guns from Sixways were straight onto the attack, playing positive attacking rugby from the start. |
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It was only some stout defence and slippy fingers that
stopped the "Warri'ettes" going into a quick lead. Young Mountfield and Matt
Evans full of confidence, taking on the Wakefield defence. Gradually the first flush of youth was dimmed by the experienced Wakefield Pack as they came surging back into the game |
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It was not long before Wakefield started
to take control and exert some controlled pressure, forcing the Warriors to
defend. Wakefield were stretching the defence in both directions. The ball was driven and a series of attacking rucks and mauls drew in the Worcester defenders leaving a gap on the open side of the field. The ball was spun out to the left and some sloppy first up tackling let the Wakefield center through who passed the ball out and a nice try was scored, with Worcester at six's and seven's. The try was confidently converted. Wakefield 7 : 0 Worcester |
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Jon Higgins, took the restart. He has had no game time at all this year and it showed in the first 20 minutes. However as the game progressed his confidence and timing improved enabling him to set up two of the three tries scored |
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The young Worcester forwards were first to the breakdown every time. the obvious game plan was not to commit too many players to the breakdown, a ploy that was exploited by Wakefield later in the game. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On several occasions the ball was worked and driven deep
into the Wakefield 22 but then turned over at the last moment allowing Wakey
to clear their lines. 20 year old James Percival was comfortably taking everything in the line, he looks a fine strong prospect, playing against the old campaigner Mick Watson |
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As can be seen here Worcester were committing the smallest
number of players into the maul. Enabling them to counter attack in numbers.
"If they could turn the ball over". Many attacks were set up but the confident young center Mountfield probably took the attacking option too many times |
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The Wakefield forwards were now taking control, using
their extra power to drive the Warriors back fast, with consummate ease. A penalty kicked to the corner gave the opportunity for a catch and driveover try. |
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The game then settled, with Wakey still
dominating the mauls. However the young Worcester forwards were equal to the
far more experienced Wakefield players at the ruck and set pieces taking one
against the head and two lineouts off the opposition. The ball though was
not being distributed quick enough by Jon Higgins and stuttered in the
mid-field. But it was the Warriors who were now asking all the questions. 21 year old Mat Evans playing at No8 has some real raw talent which hopefully will not be coached out of him but developed. On several occasions he speared through the defences only to end up isolated, but had the strength to stay on his feet until the rest of the pack got there. |
It was exactly one of these surges that
set him free just over the halfway line. He then sprinted all the way to
within 15 Meters of the line, in support was the young 17 Year old winger
Martin Freeman, who took the ball on and scored out in the corner. A
Wakefield penalty Saw the half time score reach; Wakefield 18 : 5 Worcester |
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Jon Higgins started the second half, with Worcester down to 14 men for the first 7 minutes. After the first minute of defending Worcester then became the more dominant force looking like the side that would score | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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James Percival and Matt Evans then took control of the lineouts, winning all their ball with ease. However the experienced Wakefield forwards on several occasions turned over the ball at the line, stopping good ball going to the Worcester Flyers. |
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Play was getting cramped on the outside taking all the space away from Martin Freeman who may well have profited from cutting in behind the centers and taking a line towards the near post. he looks quick and very nimble. At 6ft 1in 15st and the 3rd fastest 17 year old in the country he looks a fine prospect | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Jon Higgins then finally got into his
stride along with Garrard and Jon Hylton taking some great attacking lines.
Higgins made two lovely breaks offering the same dummy both times. The first break set up Chris Garrard for his first of the season Wakefield 18 : 10 Worcester |
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The second break setting up 19 year old scrum half Rhodri
McAtee who cut back inside and left the defence for dead as he dived over
near the post. Converted. Wakefield 18 : 17 Worcester A last minute penalty strangely missed by Jon Higgins left Wakefield the deserved winners |
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Observations: 1. The obvious being we lost the game and are now out of the cup. Leaving us with only one target left, "The League Title" and promotion. 2. It was a brave decision of the coaching team to give the youth at Sixways the opportunity to show what they could do against a full first team squad in 6th position in the league. 3. Only 3 players from the side that beat Wakefield the previous week were in the squad of 22 The average age of the team was under 22 with the forwards average age of 23. 3. Tom Warren at Prop did exceptionally well against the Wakefield front row with Iyran Clunis taking two balls off Wakey 4. Some of the line out work was a little scrappy but Percival and Evans took ball off the Wakefield line and won all but one of their own ball. 5. Mountfield has a good step inside but lacks the strength to break through, quick with good hands. |
6. Jon Higgins got better and better as the game progressed. How do we keep him match fit with Brown and Hayes. 7. Matt Evans is fast and strong, carries the ball well, other players need to learn how he plays as well as he has to learn the lines to take for the game plan. You still need to have some individual thoughts or we become automatons. 8. Neil Mason had a good game, strong physical presence at all times. 9. Martin Freeman, looked nervous but at 17 probably understandable. He has good nimble feet, is very strong on the ball and looks exceptionally fast. At 15st and 6ft 1ins what a prospect. 10. Stopped Wakefield scoring a single point in the second half! We are now out of the cup, we have the opportunity of winning the next two games and going 4 points clear of Bees who have a cup match in 14 days. Two weeks later another cup match could see us 9 points clear. Bees would have two games in hand but we will have the points on the board. If they lose to Orrell next week we could be 14 Points clear before we meet on the 13th Dec. Plus they will have to fit in 3 extra games including the plate final. |
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