WINDSOR RFC U 11's v SARACENS and v HENLEY
21st November 2004by Jamie Pyatt
The listing was posted by
SARACENS 7 - WINDSOR LIONS 19
HENLEY 7 - WINDSOR LIONS 14
Windsor Under 11's visited Henley RFC in mist and drizzle on Sunday for a double header with the home side and Saracens - a fixture that left the young Lion's facing an enormous challenge.
Saracens had convincingly beaten Windsor just six weeks earlier in the final of their own mini-tournament in the Home Park by 3 tries to nil thanks to the sheer size of their forwards.
Knowing that the Saracen's would again be relying on their two giant props, the Windsor coaches prepared their forwards to fight size with speed once they had brought down their opponents.
The forwards tackling was ferocious through Theo Masters-Waage, Teo Kubiena, Chris Boulter, Daniel Smith, Louis Murphy and Oliver Donoghue completely taking the Saracens by suprise.
And with lightning fast recycling, the idea was to get away from their forwards and into the Windsor backs where secret weapon - former forward Alex Wilson - had been repositioned.
To the suprise of the Saracens coaches, their boys who were so dominant the previous month, were constantly under pressure from probing runs and kicks from skipper Seb Moseley.
Strong running from his cousin Danny Moseley and Wilson along with resolute tackling saw the Windsor backs looking dominant and they were pressing hard to break the Saracens line.
A scrum 10 yards out saw scrum half Danny Pyatt break open then throw a lovely dummy to cut inside the Saracens fly half and break two tackles to open the scoring for the visitors.
Seb Moseley missed the conversion and Windsor turned round 5-0 up but even up the steep hill and into the driving rain kept Saracens going backwards and another try looked inevitable.
Pyatt broke diagonally from a ruck drawing their inside centre releasing Wilson to crash over the line. The scrum half then converted to put Windsor into a 12-0 lead with time running out.
Saracens were gifted a dubious try by the ref but Windsor went straight back with good kicking from full back Robert Moran pinning them in their own corner for a two minute period.
Superb pressure from a lineout saw Louis Adler steal the ball from his opposite number and score. Tough tackling winger Nick Trott converted seeing the Lions home and dry for victory.
Henley insisted due to the poor weather conditions to playing Windsor straight away giving them only two minutes to take on water after a bruising encounter before retaking the pitch.
Again Henley were a bit of a bogey team for the Lions having beaten them in the 2003 mini's tournament at Home Park in the final by a golden try in extra time and were a tough team.
But Windsor had their tails up and a new coaching technique being used in training which constantly has the young players on the go, paid dividends in fitness and increased skillls.
Seb Moseley made an excellent break half way through the first half and was dragged to the deck just short of the line but popped the ball to strapping outside centre Wilson to score.
Pyatt converted and Windsor turned round 7-0 up but again a poor refereeing decision allowed a clear double movement from a well tackled Henley player to give them a chance to get back.
The Lions didn't let their heads drop and charged back up the field and some incredibly aggressive running and tackling from new boy Adam Scaffardi saw it reap dividends for the left winger.
He tore into a maul and ripped the ball free rolling blind and over the try line. However not realiing where he was it took some loud shouts from the touchline to get him to ground it!
The skipper Moseley converted and Windsor took the honours