Newark U13 vs Southwell U13 - Sunday 29th January 2023

Final Score:Newark U13 30 - 35 Southwell U13

The under 13's went to Newark this week for their latest fixture. Unfortunately we were without the season's top try scorer, Finn Kelly, who suffered a fractured collar bone at training on Thursday night. To his credit he came along to offer us his support. Great team spirit!

The game started off a little scrappily (probably due to dodgy refereeing) and we were lucky to end the 1st quarter 2 tries to 1 up. A few harsh words were said about running straight lines during the interval and there was an improvement in the 2nd quarter. The improvement was not demonstrated any better than when Henry Stevenson, playing at scrum half, made a break from the base of a scrum and went half the length of the pitch breaking tackles and swerving round defenders to score a brilliant individual try.

Southwell got to half time leading by a couple of tries but the coaches were still a little disappointed by the way we were playing.

In the third quarter we played our best rugby, we moved the ball around quicker and more effectively than earlier in the game and Henry Townsend was unlucky to have been ruled to have had a foot in touch by touch judge, Teddy Rimmer, just as he touched down in the corner. We maintained the pressure on Newark and crossed over the line on three occasions during that 3rd quarter.

The 4th quarter started very disappointingly when we allowed Newark to retrieve the restart and run in a try completely unopposed. It didn't get much better soon after that. Newark had a scrum on their own try line and 2 passes later they were running in another unopposed try at the other end. This gave Newark a lift and they sensed the opportunity was there to win the game.

Southwell, however, finished the game the stronger and it was Southwell who looked the more likely to score as the final whistle blew with the scores at Newark 30 - Southwell 35.

Henry Stevenson won the player of the match for that wonderful solo effort in the 2nd quarter. After the game the boys had a good lunch and a few of them were made examples of for various different misdemeanours ranging from discipline issues to unacceptable fashion choices.