Mini Report Ards

Sunday, 21 March 2010 22:53

2002 Group

16 kids attended for our away fixture against Ards and Malone.

We divided them into 2 groups of 8 and were able to run 2 games at the same time.

Mark looked after one group and Darren the other.

In Mark's group we played Ards first on a very narrow pitch. Both sides scored try's  early on due to poor tackling . The longer the game went on the better the teams got to grips with their tackles and the defenses dominated. Jack as always was scoring and making big hits.

For the second half we widened the pitch and this benefitted both teams with more room to run. Academy had the added advantage playing down the hill and outscored Ards in this half.

The next team Mark's group played was against Malone. Malone were a strong team with some great runners. Academy were caught out a few times with poor tackling evident. Matthew and Jack were the only players to score for Academy.

The half time team talk was all about tackling and this worked with ALL the kids doing this. Malone  did keep the ball for long periods but were unable to score with some fine  cover tackling from Louis.

Jack finished the game with a great individual score.

In the second group small Ben, big Ben, David, Rob, Jack, Nick, Joseph, and Archie played their first game against Malone. The boys rose to the occasion playing some great rugby. Small Ben and Nick bagging a couple of tries each. It was end to end stuff with little to separate the two teams. The ref played 10 mins each way which was perhaps a little too long on a warm day. We flagged slightly at the end with Malone just edging it 7-5.

After a well earned break and plenty of water the boys played Ards. We raced into a two nil lead but Ards came back to leave it two apiece at the break. The boys generally tackled and ran well with scores for both Bens, Nick and Jack. Final score 6-6.

Areas to work on include supporting the player with the ball, recycling the ball after contact and getting greater numbers back to defend.

 
Great day out in the sun.

Things to work on next Saturday are tackling , running FORWARD with the ball and turning to present the ball.


2001 match report
 
At last some of the hard work the 2001 year group had undertaken had started to pay off.
Rucking was far stronger with Luca and Bailey performing well in this department.
Myles and Tony did a good job of getting the ball moving to some good straight running from the
two Toms,Joshua and Mitchell.
 
When Oliver, Dee Jay and James got a bit of space they showed their pace with ball in hand, they now
need to convert this to tackling prowess and hunt their opposite back down.
Overall there was improvement from all playing this Sunday. William, Matthew, Ethan showed a more determined appoach and this a long with hard training will see us improve further.
Also it is very encouraging to see that we had a large number of boys in attendance. Ards smaller numbers meant they couldnt  play a third matchdue to some knocks and injuries
 
KEEP IT UP ACADEMY.
 
David, John and Philip

1999 Group

12 boys turned up for the 1999 year group Adam, Brendan, Jack, Jack P, James, Jonathan, Matthew, Robert, Ryan, Tom, Tom and Yanis.
We managed to play 3 games - Ards twice and Malone once.

Match 1

We started slowly and allowed Ards to score a couple of tries and then we got involved and scored 3 times Tom, Brendan and Adam. 

Match 2 

Played Malone and in the spirit of rugby James and Tom played for Malone to make up the numbers. History repeated itself and we allowed Malone's speedy wingers to score a couple of good trys. In the second half Academy turned up and played some fantastic rugby with vigous rucking, some thunderous tackling and slight of hand with ball awonderful team score was finished off by Janis.

Match 3

Bouyed up by the 2nd half against Malone the boys were keen to play Ards for a 2nd time. Yet again we went 2 tries down before we decided to tackle and ruck. The 2nd half saw a more competive match with a tackle and ruck all in the same play by Adam getting the team interested. For the next 5 minutes the boys tackled and rucked brillantly. Academy ran the ball from their own line and the following phases ensured that Yanis was able to finish off yet another great team effort to dot down for a score.

Overall

Yanis and Adam always in the thick of it with both rucking really well and passing. 

James made some strong runs when he got the ball. 

Top tackling and big work rate  from– Tom, Jack , Jack P , Brendan and Ryan

Robert always did the right thing when he got the ball ran straight and didn’t lose it.
Matthew rucked strongly in the close encounters.
Jonathan made a couple of very good runs in open play.

Tom scored a good try.

Thanks to Ards for the refereeing and to both Malone and Ards for a good sporting afternoon.