A game won on defence

Dunvant came into the game on the back of a much deserved and much needed win on the weekend, we had trained well on Tuesday when we trained against Swansea Met with whom we share 5 players who are proving to be a vital addition to the squad not necessarily because they are filling in gaps in our team but by also freeing up players who are capable of playing in other positions.
It was a welcome surprise that we had 24 players available to play, with 6 players out either injured or unavailable, unfortunately Ethan pulled up in training suffering from an injury picked up playing for the school a night before. This meant that Angus slipped into hooker having played for us previously at 9 , he did not let us down on a night where an awkward wind made the lineout to be hard work for both sides but from which we made at times huge strides, with Jack and Matt proving a force to be reckoned with and Matt winning several key takes against the throw. It was from a strong lineout that we drove from 7 metres out to walk over the try line, with our own Quade Matt Ballantyne scoring on his last game for Dunvant youth for now as he is returning to his roots in Australia, though he has said he will be returning to Walford. The conversion from 5 metre from the touchline was added by Jac into a strong fluctuating wind.
The half can best be described as a battle between 2 dominant packs, who both contested the break down well, and who were reffed along the lines that if you are the attacking team you are going to be the one that would be expected to get it back, which when you are playing and watching does make the game easier to follow. This meant that our first up defence was solid though on times a bit too high, and we were not being cut around the fringes in the midfield Jac always pressed from 10 but Antonio and Dan were our Darcy and O'Driscoll shutting down their centres who had the potential to cut us apart, and as I speak I do not remember 1 break by llangenech, Antonio and Dan who have been released from the back row to do a job both say they do no want this regularly as they love the contact are ball carrying up front, though there will probable be a requirement to use one or other of them throughout the season. On the wings Matt and Joel were strong and shut down anything that came their way contesting for any loose ball. The first half was against the wind and we turned round with a 7 point lead and our line not pressurised once, a very dominant performance.
At half time we made one change with Nathan Jones who had actually managed to get some scrimmaging in and had again carried far better than he ahs done earlier in the season and at one time hit a maul that was fairly static driving it 10 yards forwards, being replaced by Sam Martin. His impact was instantaneous as he carried players on his back over 20 metres , shortly afterwards with Gwillym also carrying well and showing not shortage of deception in his pace around the fringes to spoil the oppositions ball and to carry over the gain line, we got our second try when a scrum from a piece of keystone cops rugby by llangenech led to Ben ley sliding over as the defence drifted to defend our widers attackers, again converted by Jac. Ben had come on after 10 minutes when Billy was injured from making a heavy tackle, though he did later return , he had shown some determined play when he was on and hopefully they can keep pressurising themselves to perform better, competition for places is increasing and as we all know is the cornerstone to a being a competitive team.
The next stage of the game can be called the defence stage, we came under pressure through ill discipline, and we eventually found ourselves after 10 minutes of defence on our line, but where we have buckled before we didn't our guards and fringe defence was strong and our outside defence rapid closing down the gaps. We survived several onslaughts until we managed to turn the ball over for Jac to send a kick deep 75m down the pitch.
As in previous games as the game wore on so Aaron starts to come into the game and the middle half of the game he started to turn ball over to help us drive forward from defensive positions, together with Todd an excellent defensive player Alfie again playing out of position this time at 8, we had an excellent back row combination, up front we are spoilt for choice as players are coming back from injury so this choice extends.
Moving into the last 10 minutes we scored a further try when Sam Martin playing from 8 following a reshuffle powered over again converted by Jac. The rest of the game saw us pressing and with time running out a certain try looked on the cards for a ghost try from Gwillym on the 5m line ending the game , which was a pity as for me he had been excellent throughout.
The match also saw Lewis playing his best game so far for us at 15, he was a bit shallow in the first half but in second half he was more secure even though at time you worried for him as kept taking double takes at the oncoming opposition as ball went up in the air, he kept his cool and took a few kicks under pressure and was looking as fit. Runs in the family apparently
Unfortunately we could not give all players a decent piece of game time, and hope to put this right in our next match but need those players to train and press for a start.
So on we role always look forward lads, we keep together, believe in each other and we will be on the better side of results, youth rugby is about confidence, and when we are confident we are a match for many