Sunday 13 th November 2016

Overcast but dry, pitches quite slippery on the surface following Saturday’s heavy rain.

Stowmarket Squad;-

Harry Wilson (Captain for the day)

Franklin Baker

Toby Brundell

Zed Eldridge

Tyler Timmis

William Evans

Oscar Theobald

Wayne Monger

Oliver Lucas

Game 1: Stowmarket 0 – 3 Colchester.

Following a fantastic remembrance ceremony lead by the U12 coaches & players, the U11 players struggled to get going this
week which was disappointing when they have started so strongly in recent weeks. Although a few players were playing in
new positions, Stow were hesitant and ponderous and the boys all seemed to be happy to wait for somebody else to do
something! Colchester were well organised and sharp and they were quick to pounce when the chances appeared; they ran
through Stow quite easily to take a 3-0 lead at half time.
The Stowmarket coaches fired the boys up at half time, they came out in a different mood and made a good game of the second
half with much improved tackling, less hesitancy and a much more competitive edge. Some good play from Stow forced
Colchester into a few last ditch tackles out wide and some good maul defence in the centre kept Stow from scoring.
This was a good response to the half time team talks.

Game 2: Stowmarket 0 – 4 Colchester.

Stowmarket kept up the good work from the second half of the first game into the first half of this game. Some good driving
runs from the Stow big boys tested the Colchester defence and kept them pinned back for a good period until Colchester
managed to rip the ball in midfield and scored a break away try to make it 1-0 at half time against the run of play.
In the second half Stow started to fall off tackles again and the small Stow squad started to tire. There was still some good
competition from both sides in the rucks and mauls but Colchester looked dangerous every time they moved the ball wide.
Similar to last week, the final result perhaps flattered Colchester slightly but Stow didn’t learn the lesson from last week which
was to work harder to keep their shape so that players are in place to make tackles if the ball is lost.
In summary, the Stow boys struggled this week against a strong Colchester team, which included some very competitive
individuals which kept the pressure on the Stow carriers.
The second half of the first game proved that they could compete when the boys all stepped up and worked together but they
need to do it for the whole game to turn the results around.
It also needs to be everybody working hard, not just the same few boys each week.

Areas for improvement are the same as last week;

- holding positions and not all getting ‘drawn-in’ to the breakdowns and passing the ball out wide in attack once the

space has been created.

- thinking during the game about trying different ways to get around the different teams defences.

These are things that the coaches will be working on next week at training.

Report by Graham Wilson,