Southwell U15’s 25

Tries: Jack Beard, Henry Stanford, Oli Richards, Red Oakley
Conversions: Oli Hayes
Penalties: Oli Hayes

Matlock U 15’s 26

There wasn’t a single fingernail left unchewed on the sidelines by the final whistle of this hugely exciting and even game at Park Lane. Southwell started the game firing on all cylinders, keen to get revenge for the drubbing they received at the hands of their opposition earlier in the season and it was the team in red that started the game the brightest. If Matlock were expecting to coast to victory they were immediately taught that wouldn’t be the case as they found themselves deep in their own half for the majority of the opening stages of the game.

However despite this early dominance it was Matlock who opened the scoring with a quick break that showed why the Derbyshire team won every game in their cup pool. A successful conversion followed but Southwell would quickly retaliate. Jack Beard found space to run down the wing and no one could catch him as he raced for the corner to score a magnificent individual effort.

Southwell continued to play some wonderful attacking rugby and it wasn’t long before they got themselves in the lead, a very clever kick over the defence by man of the match Oli Hayes allowed Henry Stanford to beat his marker and dive on the ball to score his first ever try for Southwell. Oli Hayes then followed the try up with a tricky conversion.

In what can be described as a reflection of most games this season the Southwell packed showed size didn’t matter and earned marked praise from the Matlock coaches who couldn’t believe what they saw as the Southwell pack drove back the much larger Matlock pack winning the scrum against the head on the Matlock 5 metre line. Once again proving that technique can out power size. Scrum half Oli Richards reacted first to the turnover to dive over the line and give Southwell a ten point lead.

Unfortunately for the young Park Lane side Matlock then rallied and mounted an amazing comeback, scoring three tries, however Southwell made this easier than they should have with some rather uncharacteristically sloppy tackling. With Southwell only managing a penalty scored by Hayes during this period they soon found themselves trailing going into the final moments of the match.

With little more than a minute to go another wonderfully intelligent kick from Hayes caused mayhem in the Matlock defence who were unable to deal with the bouncing ball in their try area and Red Oakley pounced from full back to score the try. This left Southwell with a minute remaining and receiving the ball from the kick off. The forwards secured the ball, and some excellent tackling from the Matlock side was needed to stop several Southwell breaks, however just when Southwell found themselves in the Matlock 22 they lost the ball to a turnover and Matlock hurriedly hoofed the ball into touch to bring an end to a game that every spectator agreed was immeasurably superior to the England game the previous day.