Berkshire U16s 25 v Hampshire U16s 15 at London Irish, Sunbury
21st April 2009
by Paul Markham
The listing was posted by
Berkshire County RFU - County Youth
This was a very entertaining game and fast-flowing in many parts, particularly the first half. Both team competed well and some excellent lines of running created problems for each team. This was the final game of the season for this year’s U16s and was an opportunity to give all boys a full half in front of the LI Academy team and the Berks U18 coaches. The Berkshire boys all played to their best and there were some good highlights. Above all both teams maintained excellent discipline, which always adds to improve exciting schoolboy rugby.
The Berkshire boys were asked to play with aggression, attitude and to maintain their work rate. They did all of those and the support play was awesome on many occasions. The forwards still need to learn not to hold on to the ball too long and to release out wide to the fast-flowing and effective backs.
The boys were also asked to work on Awareness, Looking, Support and Offload. The Support and Offload was abundant, we will still need to continue the work on the Awareness and Looking at U18s level.
And here is a quote from Neal Hatley, London Irish Academy Manager: ‘I just wanted to give you some feedback about the U16 game last night. It was a very good game which the boys bought into whole-heartedly, Berkshire scored in the last minute to put it beyond doubt but we were really pleased with the skill level and the willingness to play displayed by both sides. It was a compliment to both sides coaching staffs and the crowd really enjoyed it.
As mentioned above we got a lot out of it and will be looking to run similar games every season across all the age groups. Next season, London Irish would like to formally introduce the London Irish Cup which will be awarded to the County with the most wins across the age groups. I would also like to thank both coaching teams for their effort last night’.