Rhino U13s @ The London Junior 9s
The Eastern Rhino U13 squad kicked off their season yesterday at the annual London junior 9s tournament held at Hemel Stags. Many of the lads are just beginning their first season of RL which was clear to see by the look of apprehension on their faces, I have never seen so many teenager’s that quite.
The weather played its part with clear skies and glorious sunshine the lads kitted up and set straight to work getting prepared for KO. The first game saw us face the home team, the Hemel Stags who quickly raced into an early lead. The lads were failing to get off the line in D and we were struggling to slow down the quick Stags ball. In attack we were not taking the ball in at pace or maintaining possession with the lads persisting in trying some speculative offloads. The Rhinos were slowly adapting to the new code and soon dragged themselves close with the final whistle blowing a couple of minutes too early for us, Stags win by 1 try.
A quick turnaround and we are up against the Invicta Panthers who were down players already. Three of our lads quickly jumped into represent them and maximise our boys playing opportunities. Again the boys got off to a slow start and within a couple of minutes we were trailing by two tries. The lads rallied and were beginning to adapt and some RL started to break out. The Rhinos are now carrying hard and are winning the collisions and earning faster ball at the ruck. The Rhinos start crossing the whitewash again and draw level on the last play.
Straight into our third game against Medway with the lads on a high and the performances and confidence growing with each play. Again, the lads let the opposition get into an early lead as we surrendered possession cheaply trying to offload and pass when it wasn’t on. A couple of try saving tackles kept us in the game as the lads were struggling defensively to get off our lines and make their first up tackles. The Rhinos did managed to string a couple of good sets together and again managed to tie it at the death.
The boys had a bye and managed to recharge the batteries before facing the Southend Spartans in the final pool match. The Rhinos started quickly running hard in attack and pressing just as hard in D and were dominating the collisions across the park. Final score 3-1 Rhinos and great learning experience for the lads as they developed and adapted throughout the game.