Leicester Vipers Colts 14 Broadstreet Colts 32

Broadstreet Colts travelled to Leicester Vipers where we have fallen short on our last few encounters despite putting in a good performance.

Todays’ game started with us kicking off, the opposition caught the ball and passed it out to their backs from the initial ruck. Broadstreet put their back line under pressure and instantly won a penalty from some excellent Jackalling. Miles as captain instantly pointed at the posts, for Jay West to convert giving us a 3.0 lead within the first couple of minutes. Broadstreet quickly from a series of play gained another penalty which was taken quickly and passed to Luca, this saw him run in the try 30 metre out. Broadstreet scored their second try courtesy of Ben Marsden which saw some excellent ball retention 7 handling moving the ball from one side of the pitch to other giving Ben the room to run over the line almost unchallenged.

It was very clear that Broadstreet strategy of moving the ball quickly was very effective, however the opposition game plan was to blitz all the ruck and mauls with power and numbers. This was very effective against us today and from a series of play saw the opposition No8 cross the line from some sloppy defence. This saw the opposition within 6 points of our lead going into the second half.

Half time chat was to be more competitive at the rucks & mauls, keeping the ball moving as this proved successful in the first quarter. Unfortunately within the first 2 minutes we saw referee exercising the new tackle laws giving Connor yellow for a high tackle. The game went a bit stale from our prospective and we lost a little bit structure, however we managed to keep the opposition out whilst Connor was serving his time but shortly after he got back on the park we saw the referee issue another yellow card to Dawson for a late challenge. This saw a series of penalties against us for a multitude of offences and unfortunately some for decent which out of character for us. The opposition got on the front foot where they eventually crossed our line despite some excellent defence tackles but the extra man paid off is the hosts taking the lead 14:13.

This galvanised the colts and they went back to the same strategy of moving ball quickly. This saw 3 quick tries in the following 10 minutes from Broadstreet. First coming OB as we moved the ball quickly from one side to another which resulting in Liam crossing line near the posts. From the following kick off, the ball again was moved quickly with excellent support & handling moving the ball away from the opposition forward which Luca going over for his second of the day. Broadstreet now were back in control of the game and saw the opposition struggling to keep up with the pace of the game. A scrum 5 metres from the line saw Jack Sharman pick up from the base to score. Jay converted 2 of the tries to finish of todays scoring.

Today, both teams strategy work for each other but the difference was Broadstreet managed to contain Vipers threat at the breakdown in the last quarter, however when we moved the ball quickly this separated the teams on the score board. It safe to say that we had a lesson today on being competitive at the breakdown but if Broadstreet work maintaining their structure for the whole game, this will pay dividends for the forth coming games.