The dream of reaching another finals day came to an abrupt end at Moderns this weekend but the lads didn't go down without a fight the match started with an unfortunate bounce from kick off which saw Moderns score within the first minute and shortly afterwards an extremely quick strike against the head from their left footed hooker unleashed their star player Matty ( known locally as rocket man ) and it was left to Fred who tried in vain to get to him but got caught in the after burn and Moderns with some incredible touch line converting ,which Finn Russel would have been proud of ,found themselves into a 14-0 lead inside 5 minutes.
At this point earlier in the season the lads would have crumbled and the game stopped by half time but since Christmas these fine fellows have improved and it is to their testament that they started to show some composure in their performance and they battled up the hill and forced a lineout 5 metres out and ,after deploying the famous 99 call ,everyone even some of the backs drove Moderns over the line and we clawed 5 points back from a well executed training ground move.
From kick off we were soon back pressing their line and Joseph took an amazing one handed catch in the lineout after stretching right over his prop ,Jensen ,who held him up for what seemed like an eternity well done to both pod lifters. Unfortunately though Moderns became cute to our driving maul and came away with a steal and despite our best efforts the rest of the half saw us pinned down towards coffin corner where Moderns increased their lead to 20 points.
Half time talk was about the slope and the lads were told it was worth 15-20 points and that they still had everything to play for so our mid way tactics were deployed and our very own Lewis Van de Merwe was brought on along with changes to scrum half ,full back and second row.
The lads responded brilliantly from kick off and we pinned Moderns back for a good 15 minutes in the bottom corner but unfortunately we could not capitalise on our territory and eventually some very tenacious running ,from what I have recently learnt was from 3 Trent College A teamers now at Moderns,put paid to a valiant effort. Rocket man finished off with 2 tries of his own and it was at this point we saw fit to bring every player whether selected or not on to the pitch for some rugby and it was great to see Amani going over the try line with some direct running.
In conclusion I'm really happy with the spirit the lads showed they certainly battled to the end and Moderns had some very strong players to contend with and I'm sure will give whoever they play a run for their money at finals day we wish them all the best.
Thanks to all parents for bringing all the lads down suited and booted and to my fellow coach Paul Mac from the colts for bringing his camera and I look forward to seeing some of his action shots.
Our aim is now to finish the season on a high and show further improvement in our play and keep this great team spirit going into next season.