Benfleet Vikings RFC U14 v Billericay RFC U14

Squad: Taylor, Thomas, Harry D, Alfie, Frye, Archie, Toby G (c), James, Joseph, Robert, Lennon, Ted, Conor, Harry S, Charlie, Lucas, Chase, Louis, Lenny

Billericay U14s travelled to Benfleet for our first ever match against the Vikings !
Thankyou to our hosts today for a warm welcome at Benfleet and some extremely good post match burgers!

This was our first Essex RFU 'League Friendly' match and the Billericay U14s came well prepared after some tough matches and some focussed training sessions and the learnings from those sessions really showed.
Benfleet are building a mini and youth section and they were short of 2 players for the U14s so Billericay were able to lend players for each half, much appreciation and thanks to Chase, Harry S, Frye and Louis who lined up for Benfleet to make it 15 v 15 - great rugby spirit guys.

The Billericay boys lined up confidently and looked determined to build on all the positive areas which came out if the first 3 matches of the season.
The organisation, leadership, communication, passing, handling and running lines all showed an improvement versus the last match. The first 2 tries were testament to that as they were real 'team tries' as the pack pushed the Benfleet line back through multiple phases of play and recycled the ball to look for gaps in the defence. James and Archie drove over for the first 2 scores of the match.
Billericay started to work the ball out to the wide areas and use the speed of our backs to secure more points on the board via Harry D and Alfie in the fly half and full back roles.

Benfleet were still very much in the game despite Billericay's excellent start and gaps in our defence started to appear and the hosts broke though for some tries of their own to keep Billericay's feet on the ground.
The second half gave the Billericay backs a chance to show their speed and handling. The movement, passing and running lines was really impressive and Ted, Taylor and debutant Lenny dotted down to keep the Billericay side of the scoreboard ticking over.

Lots of respect to the boys who volunteered for kicking duties today - it's a very different skill for drop kicking or conversion kicking versus the normal training - you are out there all on your own and everyone is watching... great effort from all the boys on both sides today - whether successful or unsuccessful.

A really positive and enjoyable morning of rugby, well done to both sets of players, it was played in a really positive, respectful manner.

Well done to all the boys today, on both sides

Paul
Billericay U14 Team Manager