Trojans v Bournemouth U14's

Our U14 team has battled through to the Hampshire Cup Final after sealing a 17-20 victory away to Trojans. The semi-final was played in windy and muddy conditions, making life difficult for our kickers and backs, but the grunt up front worked well in the tight, despite Trojans having a slight edge in the scrum and line out.

All the boys defended magnificently, with relative club newcomer Harrison Sansom particularly putting in a massive tackling shift at flanker, and the hard work paid off. After a 22 drop out from Trojan’s was caught well in a tricky wind by scrum half Dan Williams, he went on the attack and released Centre James Wheeler to make a strong run for the corner to secure an unconverted try. Further pressure in the opponent’s 22 led to Trojan’s dropping the ball after a strong tackle by Captain Felix Vincent, who sprinted from the scrum to nail Trojan’s Fly Half. James pounced, gathered the ball and ran in a try between the posts which he then converted. Korbin Clark was unlucky not to add a third soon after, when a well distributed ball from a line out just inside Trojan’s half found its way to our flying 13, who ran a full 30 metres, chipped over the defence but just couldn’t gather the ball after it had crossed the try line. Trojans secured a penalty just before the break, meaning Bournemouth were 3-12 up at the half time whistle.

The second half began with Trojans infringing just outside the 22, and once again James stepped up to kick the 3 points. Trojan’s dug deep in the second half and started to gain the ascendency. After a prolonged period of pressure near the Bournemouth try line, they were awarded a penalty try to make the score 10-15. Bournemouth raised their game once again and, after a hard-fought ruck just outside the Trojan’s 22, replacement scrum half Oli Evans dug the ball out to find James waiting to receive his pass and run in his hat trick in the corner. Given the wind, it was un-surprising that touchline kick specialist Korbin just missed the conversion.

Trojan’s rallied again and kicked into our territory, with a loose ball being gathered and leading to their final try under the sticks, which again was converted. During a nervous final 5 minutes, Bournemouth played the territory game and pinned Trojan’s down in their 22 to see out the win.

Man of the match, named by Trojan’s, was Alex Lilly ,after a strong and disciplined performance at Number 8. However, the whole squad deserve the plaudits for a great team effort.

We look forward to the final on March 20^th against Alton.