Sidmouth Under-10s were worthy winners of both matches they played against hosts Exmouth, writes Stephen Kruger.

Sidmouth Under-10s were worthy winners of both matches they played against hosts Exmouth, writes Stephen Kruger.

After the previous match days narrow defeat to Withycombe the team were looking to bounce back, but the initial impression was that the early performance was a bit Sunday morning sloth-like!

However, it didn’t take long to quickly whip them into shape with a fast flowing warm-up of touch rugby. The approach meant that the boys were all set for ‘popping’ the ball from the ground and keeping the ball free flowing, rather than being tied up in contested breakdowns. The approach was to pay handsome dividends.

The first game got off to a fairly equal start. Indeed, Exmouth’s not so secret, heavy weight weapon, the ‘colossus’ was to wade through Sidmouth’s defence and then swallow dive to score an earth shuddering try. At the break the hosts led 3-2.

Clearly Sidmouth needed to up their game in the second half, and they did! They went on to score five unanswered tries in an exceptional second half showing to secure a 7-3 success.

The second game saw Sidmouth push home the advantage of their superior play and they powered to a 7-2 triumph over a somewhat dejected, Exmouth.

Whilst not immediately apparent, the coaching team this week decided to employ a ‘two-team’ approach, rather than the constant interchanging being used in the past. This is largely due to the fantastic numbers we have in this age group this year which allows us to field two teams for every fixture!

This has a two-fold benefit; there’s better chemistry between the players as they get used to playing with the same people rather than having to constantly adapt to new personnel and, with a ‘one half on, one half off’” approach, the players are both hungry and refreshed by the time they take the field!

What was good about the play was that the ream avoided contested breakdowns, off-loaded before the opposition’s tackle, the ball was pooped fluidly from the ground when tackled and the players all avoided swarming around the ball. The approach, in both attack and defence, had a strategy and shape. In summary the boys played brilliantly. The tries were scored by lots of different players, having been set up by lots of other players. All in all an outstanding team effort, rewarding the plucky Sidmouth players with an impressive and well deserved win. An excellent Sunday morning’s work. Well done boys!