Manchester Under 11s v Sale

Manchester visited the Sale Sharks training ground at Carrington to take on Sale Scorpions
The weather was set fair and we split into 2 teams of mixed abilities so all the boys got maximum playing time.
Rucking, better body positions and line speed have been the focus for the last few weeks and in these areas the boys have hugely improved, leading to better defence, better ball retention and conceding fewer tries.
Team Fozzy consisted of Sam, Charlie, Ewan, Fozzy, Max H, James Houghton, Luka, Henry and Freddie. In their first game they played with great spirit. 2-0 up at half time from good rugby and great defence. In the second half they want on the score 2 further tries with Sam moving to Fly-Half and first feeding Ewan for a length of the field run and a second try from Sam himself, spotting a gap and going all the way from a long way out. All the team performed well and the final score was 4-0. The nil being the most pleasing part as the team didn’t concede a single soft score.
Team Hirst consisted of Harry, Ben H, Max F, Jacob, James Hargreaves, Paddy, Billy and Jayden. In their first game they came up against the stronger of the two Sale teams. There was much more commitment from the team with better tackling, much better rucking and getting up in defence to stop Sale playing. Manchester scored a couple of well worked tries where space was created for runners to break the defence. Manchester conceded a few freak tries from a little bit of panic and misjudged kicking. That was the only real difference in the teams. Game finished 7-2 to Sale.
The Teams switched opponents with Team Fozzy taking on the stronger Sale team. The boys started out with the same determination as the first game. Getting up quicker and looking to retain the ball. On a high from the first victory the Sale team started quickly and got ahead of Manchester. Unfortunately going behind hit the team’s confidence and some old habits crept in. A few tackles were missed and the intensity dropped. Tired legs also started to show and the boys couldn’t cope with the extra pace and fresher legs in the Sale team. Finally going down 7-1
Team Hirst took too the second game with greater confidence and continued to play very solid rugby. Strong rucking and good ball retention continued and at half time the score stood at 1-2. In the second half Manchester turned up the heat and scored 3 unanswered tries, good efforts from Harry and Jayden, with Harry second try coming from clever play with Manchester packing one side of the field from a scrum and Sale leaving defenders on the wrong side. Subsequently Sale didn’t know which player to defend and a pass from Ben put Harry in a big gap to score. The game end 1-5 to Manchester.
So each team had one win and one loss with very similar scores.
Performances to note in Team Fozzy were Sam’s vision for the 2 tries in the first game and playing what was in front of him, and not deciding what he was doing before he received the ball. Ewan and Henry both ran strongly and Charlie was his usual busy self, in attack and defence. James Houghton had a quiet day with Max H and Freddie needing to get involved with the play more. The coach’s highlight from the one game was from a kick off where 3 boys chased the kick down and surrounded the player collecting the ball. This forced a mistake and gave us the ball and great field position. A great example of moving up together.
Performances to note in Team Hirst were Billy’s mazy run to the line and a wonderful side swerve to go in for his first Manchester try, Jacob and Max F tackled really well, Max making a couple of last man tackles that stopped definite scoring chances. James Hargreaves rucking and disruption in defence was very good and could almost be described as Scottish. Paddy’s ball rentention and presentation was very good, and just what we have been coaching. Jayden was his usual strong self in both attack and defence, and Ben H and Harry combined very well in midfield to create space and break the defence. But the biggest highlights were the teamwork, work rate and overall commitment to the task.
Another very positive step forward with the boys focussing on the task and the elements the coaches want to build on. Every player yesterday can say they did something better than they had before and as a squad we are improving all our core skills very well. Hopefully the couple of wins will bring the boys more confidence and we will keep improving each week.