Rugby Union: Aldwinians U11s 4 - 11 Rochdale U11s

From kick off Rochdale quickly learnt of Aldwinians secret weapon, a very powerful well-built runner called Bobby. A few exchanges of play followed with Rochdale piling on the pressure and driving them near to their line, then an unfortunate turnover and Aldwinians punched through our line to create the first score.

Their lead was to be held for approximately 30 seconds, as Rochdale were awarded a penalty shortly after the restart and Oliver Husband flew threw a narrow opening near the touchline to level the scores.

Aldwinians then went through a few phases of play before offloading onto the ever-present Bobby who crashed his way through Rochdale’s defence and scored a great power try.

By now Rochdale had started to twig the Aldwinians strategy, namely pass the ball to Bobby and then try and capitalise on the ensuing breakdown.

Rochdale ramped up the pressure and Harry Nolan executed a superb tackle down low which felled their star player and showed Rochdale how to stop the big man. From the spilt ball, Cameron Stretch sent it quickly to Jake Johnson, onto Alfie White who then straightened his run, drew in two defenders and offloaded superbly back to Stretch who had looped round and duly ran in for the point.

From the restart, once again Rochdale recovered the ball with some excellent counter rucking from Max Evans and Nolan Stretch again in to claim the ball, then Jake Johnson received the ball and delivered a perfect pass to his brother, Finn. He still had work to do, leaving two Aldwinian players standing and shrugging off the challenge of a third, to score and put Rochdale ahead 3-2 after 15 minutes.

Rochdale made a number of substitutions but once again a slow start saw Aldwinians register an early try to level the scores.

Having been denied a score in the first 15 minutes, Casey Brooks received the ball well within Rochdale’s own half, and with a burst of acceleration, flew across the pitch and scored a great solo try. This second 15 minutes was proving a harder challenge for the forwards and once again good rucking play by Aldwinians and an easing off of Rochdale tackles allowed them to bring the scores level again.

As the second 15 minutes came to a close, Rochdale found themselves defending their own line before a great tackle by Alex George resulted in Aldwinians spilling the ball.

From the restart, about five metres from Rochdale’s line, Oliver Husband once again spotted space between their defence and the touchline and promptly shot down the touchline for another great individual score.

In the second half Rochdale really stepped up through the gears and the work carried out by the forwards was really paying off. In a devastating 10-minute spell tries were scored through Izzie Simpson, Jake Johnson, Jake again, Finn Johnson and then Izzie Simpson for a second time.

A particular moment to savour was when Aldwinians made a rare break and having drawn Rochdale three quarters in, their player rushed towards the try-line for a certain score.

However, he hadn't reckoned on Simpson who pulled off a magnificent covering run from the middle of the pitch to finish with an immense power tackle and bundle their player into touch five metres from the try line.

In the final 10 minutes Rochdale again absorbed and neutralised Aldwinians strong players, and once again Casey found space and used his pace to cross the line to add icing to the cake.

The Aldwinians coach lamented that Rochdale appeared to have a great blend of both power and speed players. 

The hard work put in by the forwards really paid dividends.

Whilst individual moments of flair and genius from Husband and Brooks were a joy to watch, it was the combination of that forward platform which allowed Alfie White, Izzie Simpson, the magical Johnson brothers, and Alex George to shine.

Man of the match was Max Evans who was relentless in attack and defence - a very enjoyable Sunday morning.