Match Report
Match reports 2006/7: Under 16's | Under 14's | Under 10's
Under 16's Match Report - 15th October 2006
(Away to Ilford Wanderers)
Score: 15 - 10
The first of 18 games for the Wildcats and definitely a sign of things to come.
Traveling up to Illford for the first game of the season was not an easy task, but each man on the field played well and showed some Canvey grit!
Within minutes of the kick-off a slight ruckus broke out between Shaun and an Illford player, the ref turned a blind eye as a scrum for an earlier offence was given.
The match continued with possession changing every few minutes, many lineouts and scrummages were packed into a short space of time, denying the Canvey Backs the ball they needed.
The ball was still in a confused state, going from team to team, until Jake Young managed to get a break and run through a big crowd of Illford's players, the ball was spilled out and an Illford player kicked short to the line where an unlucky Andrew couldn't defend himself against the attacker and Illford dived across the line to make it 5-0 (unconverted).
Following this the Canvey morale took quite a substantial dip, yet the players soldiered on and forced the Illford lads to make some very silly mistakes. Only recently learning to lift in the lines Canvey managed to win some decent ball, with Jack Clement and Luke Nicholls being the key lifted men.
A few wrongly taken 'quick' penalties forced Canvey to concede scrums which they defended valiantly many thanks to Luke Lanza and Billy 'Stavros' Gorringe holding up against an Essex selected prop and two rather dumpy blokes by his side.
Canvey eventually realised that taking quick penalties wasn't their forte and chose to kick long, which resulted in a line-out, the line-out throw wasn't straight which lead to a scrum which Canvey won against the head, managing to break through Canvey piled on the pressure until an Illford lad used his hands in the ruck (and not for the first time!) Canvey were given a penalty which Jake Young took on and blazed through the Illford defences, eventually scrambling over the line for a morale boosting and well deserved try (unconverted)
The Half-Time whistle blew and Canvey made a few 'strategic' changes and substitutions.
Chris Pitts moved to Andrews position on the wing, with Jake 'Clement 1' Clement coming on, Kieran 'Piggy' Nash was substituted for Bobby 'Riddlz' Cosini.
The second half seemed to bring new life to the Canvey lads, even though they were in touching distance of their own try line, they courageously battled back, for every 1 Illford man there was a swarm of Canvey boys to close them down, eventually Russell Lynes managed to win the ball from a spillage and Canvey turned over, further pushing the Illford boys back and some marvelous team work from Shaun and Jake Young caused some problems with Illford's defence, more hands in the ruck resulted in a Canvey penalty, with Jack Chandler's leg in a dodgy state Jake Young hoofed the ball up field.
This resulted in a well taken three man line-out straight to Jack 'Clementstoo' Clement, who offloaded the ball rather well, and Canvey were back on the push, a scrum gave Canvey a shot at goal, the win from the forwards resulted in Jack Chandler being able to throw it down his line of backs, Shaun took the ball in hard and managed to beat a few Illford boys, before offloading to Jake Young who did his thing and went over for his double(unconverted)(a few Illford crybabies protested in vain to the referee as the try was given)
With about 20 minutes left Canvey had a 5 point lead to defend, once more the ball went from team to team with Illford getting all the way to Canvey's try-line and fumbling with the ball on more than one occasion, with great thanks to Luke Lanza and Chris Pitt for making some great try-saving tackles.
The ball was still deadlocked in a tussle between the two teams, with Jake Young making a beautiful break and running the full length of the pitch, screaming like a good 'un, and diving over the line...sadly he hadn't heard the ref blow his whistle prior to his run which made him have to walk back to the 22 line rather red faced and well deserving of the new nickname of FORREST GUMP!
After that Canvey tried to surge forward, a few words being exchanged between teams and a little frustration (most from Scott Applin and Jamie Swann) a good try from Illford who then decided to celebrate in a football-esque fashion (unconverted)
Now deadlocked at 10 points each and approximately 10 minutes to play both sides were trying to push forward, Billy 'Prettyboy' Marsh managed to run a few, and a few more yet each run ended abruptly with no passing from that young man! (I did pass, but Illford ended up with the ball!)
Canvey drudged on with Shaun once more running at the Illford boys and Luke Lanza throwing his weight around, it looked as though a draw was on the cards, but the Illford boys really went for it, unsuccessfully on so many occasions, they knew they had to make this next one work and sadly for Canvey they managed to score(unconverted)
Leaving Canvey with 3 minutes to fight back, they knew they had to give it their all, ferocious surges forward and some well played defence lead to a Line-out, just before the halfway line, the line out was a little astray and resulted in an Illford scrum, where both sides were informed that it was the final play of the game, Illford won the scrum and their number 8 grubbered the ball past the touch line to end a well fought contest.
The traditional tunnel at the end of the game was done and then Canvey sat down with Biff and Kevin, who delivered both compliments and criticisms along with a few pearls of wisdom.
The MOTM and Wig were decided, with 2 contenders for both, Luke Lanza and Shaun for MOTM and Jake Young (for his Forrest Gump-esque run) and Billy Marsh (for doing what he usually does). Not a bad result, a win would have been nice, but the lads held their heads up high... Roll on Basildon
match report by Billy Marsh
Tries: 2 x Jake Young
Conversions: 0
Penalties: 0
Starting XV
Luke 'Tank' Lanza
Scott 'Trigger' Applin
Billy 'Stavros' Gorringe (Captain)
Jamie 'Shrek' Swann
Chris Pitts
Jack 'Clementstoo' Clement
Billy 'Prettyboy' Marsh (WIG)
Luke 'Spam Man' Nicholls
Keiron 'Piggy' Nash
Jack Chandler
Andrew
Shaun
Connor Cowee
Russel Lynes
Jake 'Forrest' Young
Jake 'Clement 1' Clement
Bobby 'Riddlz' Cosini.
WIG of the Match: Billy 'Prettyboy' Marsh
Man of the match: Luke Lanza
