Casuals bought 2 teams of Ayla, Freddie, Jhett, Oliver S, Harry H, Owen, Benjamin, Hedley, Sery and Louie; and Wilf, Thomas, Harry M, Adam, Oliver D, William, Rory, Verity and Christopher.

Casuals were caught cold during the first game. Long Eaton dominated the early exchanges with a physical running game that we struggled to cope with. It took some time for the team to work out to counter by keeping the defensive line tight and quickly closing any space. The players took a pounding. Full commitment to stopping the Long Eaton attacks during the first half of the game left some battered bodies. Casuals kept regrouping and continued to press.

Casuals have some quick players and took advantage of this once we started to get more possession and turnovers. The space created by Long Eaton’s narrow defence and playing style of staying close to the ball left gaps to run through. As we started to turn the game in our favour, our confidence grew, and our passing and offloads were good and quick. In the end, both teams scored plenty of tries in a closely fought contest.

Casuals went on to play 3 more Long Eaton teams and lessons learnt, controlled the games. Continuing the physicality, tackling and speed made the difference.

Player of the week was Freddie for his tackling and constant running and producing some of creative offloads that led to tries .