Billericay RFC U14 - Woodford RC U14 - Essex Waterfall Cup Round 2 17/11/19

Squad : Taylor, Josh, Sam, Thomas, Harry D, Alfie,Frye, Archie, Toby, James, Harry I, Joe, Rob, Lennon, Ted, Conor, Harry S, Charlie, Lucas, Chase, Louis

Billericay U14s had a 100% squad availability for the Round 2 Essex Waterfall Cup match which was fantastic to get everyone some game time. As a club who strongly promote 'Kids First' values, every single boy regardless of experience and ability level was given at least a full half a match - this meant a lot of changes at half time and a lot of positional adjustments and hard work for the coaches, but that's what the Billericay U14s are all about - promoting an inclusive approach to youth rugby and promoting the true core values;

Teamwork.
Respect.
Enjoyment.
Discipline.
Sportsmanship.

Woodford U14s are a very strong outfit, playing in Div 1 of the Essex RFU 'friendly league' structure with Billericay in Div 3 so we knew it would be a tough draw for the boys. Straight from the off, the Woodford pressure was on and they were able to get ahead with two quick scores.
One of the huge positives for Billericay U14s this season has been our scrums ability to match or even dominate much bigger packs and clubs from higher divisions due to our boys excellent technique. The Billericay forwards really had a tough time in this match as Woodford had a huge physical advantage and combined that with good technique and aggression. Billericay did win some of their scrums but Woodford were a really well organised unit and made it very hard on the day.

The Bees found it hard to gain any territory and were working overtime in the tackling which was much improved versus the last match, a real positive from today.
Second half saw six changes from Billericay and despite the result of the tie being out of reach, they went out to treat the second half as a new game. The effort and attitude of the Billericay boys was fantastic to see, they dug in hard and started to spend a bit more time inside the Woodford 22 but couldn't quite find the breakthrough to the try line.

Club President Scott Fisher was watching on and was hugely impressed at the courage and determination of the U14s, and despite being 'up against it' in terms of physical size and strength, the boys tackled their hearts out and gave Woodford a really good match in the second half.

Well done boys, be proud of yourselves - much better than the week before

Two more games left in 2019, lets really go for it and build on what we learnt this week

Paul Bolton
Billericay U14 Team Manager