Windsor U12s v Shebbear College
20th March 2005by Garry Irwin
The listing was posted by
Click here for more Pictures
Today was somewhat cooler than the previous day, yesterday summer had arrived this morning we were back to cold wind, grey and overcast. The ground was quite dry and very firm, so we are clearly starting to enter the final “grazed knees” part of the season. There was a noticeable series of straight line cuts in the soil forming a basic grid pattern. Was this a primitive crop circle created by an intellectually challenged alien life-form or the groundsman trying to create mini pitches?
This morning we were playing hosts to a touring private school-boy side called Shebbear College (may have a slight French accent to it – not sure but I am from Essex so to me it is pronounced as the female bear sounds) from Beaworthy in North Devon. http://www.shebbearcollege.co.uk/ The strange thing for a touring side was that they were no dads with hangovers on the touchline trying to keep their breakfast down, just two coaches. Now this could only mean one of two things, either they were a real die-hard touring side and the dads had already found and bar and decided to give the rugby a miss, or no parents had come with them, it was then that it struck me that they were a private boarding school, I had answered my own question.
Background on Bears: Some little known facts about “…..bears” (latin name - Ursus arctos horribilis) - They are usually dark brown in colour but can vary to almost black (aha – hence the black strip with yellow & red hoop). If the tips of the guard hairs are white (sounds awful – I know our boys could start growing hair in all sorts of places – but on their guards!), they give the bear a grizzled appearance, hence the term Grizzly bear. Major threats to their survival include habitat and population fragmentation, excessive human-caused mortality and habitat encroachment especially in habitats near human development (hard to believe in North Devon). So the question was, are they simply teddies and would we send them away grizzling or were we in for a mauling……??
They had arrived in two white mini buses, and amassed in the car park near pitch #2. What amazed me was that these boys stood in close formation and waited for their instructors to say before crossing the road onto the pitch, now they were either hesitant about taking on the mighty Windsor boys or well disciplined, I could not imagine our boys standing still for that length of time even if their lives depended on it.
Tony had just told me that these boys had only lost once this season, so those words did not fill me with confidence, however when I glanced back at our boys, two were taking it easy in the chairs, several others were running around like puppies that had slipped their leads for the first time, and Alex Wilson was (who was standing by bent double for some reason) stood up straight very quickly and butted his dad Gary on the hooter……………Lord help us I thought.
Well let’s talk about rugby………..
It was decided that our two teams would play each other first, whilst the Shebbears did a bit of training on the other pitch half and then watched from the sidelines. Well what ensued must have thrown the opposition completely, as it looked like we had two equally strong A sides……………
Game 1 – Windsor A’s v Windsor Dev Squad (A’s playing in Black shirts)
This turned out to be a blinding game, with the Dev squad giving no ground at all; in fact for the first ten minutes they dominated the play, in scrums, rucks and passing. This throw the A side out of rhythm and they were finding it almost impossible to penetrate a side that fought as hard in attack as they did defending their own line. Theo, Michael and Ainsley tried several probing runs to either wings and were dealt with in equal and opposite force. This game was fiercely competitive and an absolute treat to watch. No score at half time was a fare result.
Half Time 0 – 0
The second half started in exactly the same fashion. Harvey was playing the game of his live, with some superb kicking. Suddenly Theo made a break down the R/H wing, his usual lightning run, just in play and ¾ of the pitch, but was terminated by a side on tackle from Sam Irwin (playing full back), but the ball fell loose and was recovered by the Blacks how rapidly switched wings with some swift passing and Ainsley completed the try, a second before Sam arrived from the over side. The game was extremely even and so it was to be that the Dev squad made a central push and sent of Scott Bedhurst for a blinding first personal try in a Windsor shirt. Fantastic boys, simply breath-taking to watch, and confirmed that the margin between the two teams was just that, marginal. My man of the match goes to the entire Development Squad……
Full Time Score 5 - 5
Game 2 –Windsor A’s v Shebbear College (Shebbear wearing Black Shirts with Yellow edged in red band)
This was to be the best of starts for our A-Side for a while, having had a brush with a determined Dev squad moments before, the A squad looked up for it, you could see the frustration and aggression was welling up like April sap. From the kick, Windsor was up in their faces, but not making much in the way of yardage however as our wingers were in their running backwards and forwards routine but in an ever so slightly East-to-West direction rather than towards the try line. Gradually our backs had their compasses corrected and we started to make inroads.
Colin was the first the make a valiant effort, breaking free with the ball tucked under his arm, he steamed up the middle with a few boys hanging onto his legs (like outriggers or stabilisers) and just got the ball knocked from his grip as he went for the line, unlucky Colin, it was very close.
Moments later from a Shebbear kick (still sounds weird saying that) which was caught well by Alex Bates, a swift pass to Tom who dispatched and equally quick pass to Theo and the strawberry blond pony express was off, straight at first but then he opted for a 45 deg snaking run through ½ dozen memorised players for the first try. 5 – 0
The scrums were awesome, at times too strong and in danger or travelling too far, the rucks were very quickly assembled as the boys pilled in and the aggressive footwork was starting to drag the ball out (from the earlier training emphasis). The passing was the most noticeable treat to watch (occasionally rather flat) but very quick. The running with the ball was now starting to straighten up now, and Ainsley performed another of his impressive runs down the right wing (not his favourite side) to pull off a second try. 10 – 0
Last move before half time involved Theo catching a kick who ran to the R/H side (with cries of “run forward” ringing in his ears), a short pass to Ainsley in close support (who was nailed by Shebbear), however the ball went loose, Tom emerged from the ruck and he ran it to the L/H side, passed to James who sent John Luxmore off with a nice timed pass and John didn’t need telling were the line was. 15 - 0
Half Time 15 – 0
Coaches Comment – from Simon Bates: “Boys suck them in and then pounce” and “boys…..try to run straight please!”
Second half started equally as strong with a superb intercept from Alex bates, who took the ball forward 30 yards, passed to Jesse and out to Theo and on again to Tom Brocket to score 20 - 0. A marvellous piece of opportunism by Alex and capitalised on by his team mates.
Unfortunately, one of the Shebbear boys got trampled a bit in a ruck. Chris Brown was trying to attract John’s attention and muttered “I need a megaphone to get myself heard”, where upon someone else said that John could do with a megaphone as well, looking rather stunned we enquired why and it was explained to us that it could work equally well in reverse, John could shout into the big end and tone him down to normal decibel levels.
Michael Chambers nearly pulled off another beauty, after a superb run, he let go a little chipped ball, but the bounce was not favourable and it rolled on too far, had it bounced up he would have been sure to score, but the game ended at 20 – 0.
Full Time Score 20 – 0
(Try scorers Theo Brown, Ainsley Campbell, John Luxmore & Tom Brocket)
Game 3 – Windsor Dev Squad v Shebbear College
Now it was the turn of the development squad to show their metal and indeed they did. Alex Cooke made a great run and passed out the ball to Alex Geach who was nailed by one of the Shebbear boys (actually that is now starting to sound like a car in Wacky Races).
Shebbear made a run down the middle but were stopped in their tracks by George, and Windsor rallied into a strong defence on our line and pushed back up the pitch. A lineout, won by the college boys led to a long kick, which as caught cleanly by Sam, however by the time it had dropped into his arms a college boy was on him like a bad rash. The Windsor boys got back in numbers as Sam held on grimly, but eventually a lad had managed to snatch the ball from the maul and from the back he rolled himself over a succession of tackles and planted the ball for a good try. 0 – 5
Half Time 0 – 5
The second half was a tough half, one or two of their lads really started to show their true form, two lads in particular, one with a black cap and another with a grey cap, really started to cause us trouble. However our lads showed some tremendous spirit, one of our newbies (William Parker) make a cracking solo run of 25 yards, but just failed to connect up a pass as he was bundled over the touchline.
We went through a period of scrum trouble, as it wheeled around several times, mainly due to the power that our boys were exerting on a tired Shebbear side. Unfortunately Windsor unable to capitalise on the later stage of domination and the score remained 0 – 5.
Dave Campbell said at the end “I am so proud of you boys, you are a quality team……………I am very happy”
Full Time Score 0 – 5
At the end, the coaches called the boys over for the final debriefing and what seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of boys with birthdays that required the mandatory bumps, I know that Jas and Deano were two of them.
A sad sight and even worse on the ears was to hear Theo limping across, when asked to join the rest of the boys was heard to utter “I can’t my leggies are too sore”………………ahhhhhh!