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On Saturday 20th September coaches,
parents and kids assembled at Belfast Harlequins for the
first game of the season.
In previous years this has been a tough
fixture to kick off with and this year was no exception with
Quins having upwards of forty kids to pick from.
With the majority of kids turning up on
time it gave us a chance to get in a good pre match warm up
to help blow the cob webs off. Head coach Jonny Allen lead
the warm up with the guys looking sharp and full off energy.
Once the warm up was complete we spilt
into two teams and went to commence battle.
From the kick off Academy went forward
with purpose and looked dangerous however strong Quins
defence often resulted in Academy turning the ball over.
As the first half went on and with
Academy starting to tire Quins began to string a few useful
phases of rugby together resulting in a number of unanswered
scores. Some positives from the first half were in phases
Academy tackled with good technique and aggresion
particularly Janis, Morgan and Locksley with some strong
running coming from Carl, Adam and Cameron.
The second half was similar to the first
in that Academy went through good phases followed by phases
of play that were not up to the standards that Academy are
capable of.
All in all a encouraging display against
a strong Quins side with plenty for the coaches to work on
next Saturday.On the second
pitch a squad of 12 boys played 2 matches against 2 strong
Quins teams. The first match demonstrated that Academy are
not good travellers. The 12 miles to South Belfast seemed to
drain any rugby thoughts out the boys minds. The only
players to make any impact in the opening game were Robbie,
Robert , James and Tom all three making their tackles and
strong running. Tackling, pitch awareness, direct running,
rucking and passing all were very noticable by their
absence.
Thankfully the first match done and
dusted, the coaches gave the players the objective to
improve and put into practice tackling, tackling, TACKLING
and more TACKLING. The coaches were not disappointed. The
Twins David and Jordan along with Robbie and Jack led the
way with some great direct running and were foiled several
times by some great Quins last gasp tackling. Academy got
their score from some strong running from Dillion, Robert
and Dillion. With Jack making some hard yards to offload a
great pass for Robbie to speed over the line. The score
seemed to transfix the boys and from here on in every single
player got stuck in. Robert and Tom continued to
execute perfect tackles. Richard, Patrick and both Dillions
got more involved as the game progressed. Quins managed to
score a fine individual try to level the scores.
The second half of the game was played
out without any further scores. The turn around in
performance was highlighted when the Academy players refused
to allow Quins to cross the try line with resolute defence.
This was capped by new player Zed who put in a series of
thumping tackles to halt the boys from South Belfast.
Certainly a match of two halves the
first hopefully not be repeated and plenty more of the
second half performance.
Thanks to the Harlequins for good fair
matches and the referee who kept the game flowing at all
times.
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