25/04/10 - County Festival
at Henley - a dull and wet start to the day was actually welcome as the
day brightened up tp provide perfect pitch and playing conditions. Great
to see some players not selected for the festival coming along to support the
team. Photos on the Facebook site thanks to the Toners. Here're some
comments from the coaches:
A day of highs and lows for the U12s - our
lads were great ambassadors for Witney. The first game in our pool was v. Grove, the boys should have scored
more but were the eventual winners 10-0. Try scorers were Ollie Toner and
Will Routledge. Pride was at
stake in our second pool match v. Oxford - a tense and tough battle ending in a
0-0 draw, despite some intense try-line pressure from Witney towards the
end. Sadly this wasn't enough
to take us on to the cup and we were drawn against Bicester in the Plate
semi-final.
At this point the coaches put our hands up - did we do the
right thing? We put on the replacements for a run out in an act
of fairness to the players that we took to the festival.
In doing so we changed the shape of
the team and broke the momentum from the first two games. Perhaps we
should have stuck to the 1st team, but having made the changes we think we also
failed to prepare the players adequately for this match. The coaches
feel they let the team down on this one and take responsibility for the result,
a 30 point lesson from Bicester. A disastrous start saw Bicester
scoring from the kick-off - this set the scene for the game, with some
indifferent tackling from Witney. Bicester rucking was superior - an area
we really need to improve in.
OK lessons learnt let's move on - training next Thursday, then off on tour on Friday - let's
just enjoy ourselves!
22/04/10 - Thursday Training Session - we're
playing Grove and Oxford in our Pool on Sunday so a bit of motivational advice
for the lads. Thanks and well done to the lads who turned up for training
who aren't playing on Sunday - great to see the squad spirit!
18/04/10 - Match Away v. Marlborough cancelled due to hard
ground. Training session held at the club in beautiful sunny
weather. Excellent effort from the boys as the coaches put them through
and exhaustinbg schedule of tackling drills, followed by a training game.
Whole squad in attendance.
15/04/10 - Thursday Training
Session
11/04/10 - Training at Home
04/04/10 - Easter - No Rugby.
28/03/10 - Match Away v. Gosford All
Blacks. A good effort from the whole squad against a small
Gosford side that never really worried our boys. Doc's rucking and boshing
pre-match warm up got the boys ready for action. At last we saw some good
rucking and support play and it wasn't long before Ben D opened our account
and further tries followed from Fisky and Pomm with conversions by Archie,
Joe Sweeney and Ben D. The scrum and our tackling let us down in the
second quarter which saw the boys let a few past. Our try for Witney came
from Joel but unfortunately Archie's conversion attempt was thwarted by the
post. Further tries came from Fisky and a brace from Spud and were
converted by Joe Sweeney, Harry!! and Ben D. A fiesty fourth
quarter where the ref had to calm things down with no score at all
in what was a tight tussle. Overall a good confidence boost for the
lads. More tackling, rucking and boshing practice I feel needed
though, if we are going to meet stonger opposition in the future.
Overall final score Witney 52 - Gosford 19.
21/03/10 - Match Away v. Chipping
Norton. Wheatley were also meant to join in a 3-way but didn't
show. Oh dear! We didn't really turn up - not a great
performance from Witney. In the first match (A teams) a promising
first 5 minutes gave way to some poor rucking (stand and stare!) and tackling
(going for the ball not the legs), and although there's no doubting the spirit
of our lads we went down 0-19. Similar pattern in the second match (mixed
A/B teams) and although we pulled back to 7-14 at half time, our lack of drive
in the rucks and some lack-lustre tackling allowed a further opposition score,
finally going down 7-19. As Pum said later "our lads are better than that"
but it's back to basics on rucking and tackling. Every team has a bad week
(or in the 6 Nations 5 bad weeks!) - hopefully that was ours, and we'll move on
from here.
14/03/10 - Training at Home
- lower attendance than normal due to various ailments and Mothers
Day. Tough session for players with lots of work on attack lines for
backs, and a training match concentrating on running, passing rugby. Great
to see Sam Cobb stretching his legs for some powerful runs. Welcome to
Haydn on his first time at Witney.
07/03/10 - Witney Mini-Festival
with teams from Oxford Harlequins, Grove and Fairford. Fantastic
morning of rugby, very well organised (thanks John Tripp and his army of
helpers) and good weather after a chilly start. Match Results
(no conversions):
Witney A v. Witney B: Witney A won 25-0.
Scorers: Toogood (2), Marks (2), Fisk
Witney A
v. Grove: Witney 10 Grove 10. Scorers: Marks,
Toner
Witney B
v Fairford: Witney 10 Fairford 15. Scorers: Clarke,
Pummery
Witney A
v. Oxford Harlequins: Witney 5 Oxford Hq 10. Scorer:
Toogood
Witney B
v. Grove: Witney 0 Grove 30
Witney B
v. Oxford Hq: Witney 5 Oxford Hq 25. Scorer:
Wensley
Witney A
v. Fairford: Witney 20 Fairford 0. Scorers: Pinney, Pummery,
Toner, Wilson
Memorable moment
- clean tap down ball from line-out straight to scrum half, swiftly out to fly
half, the ball being passed quickly along the strong running back line ending
with the winger scoring. Perfect - could
almost be Welsh!
28/02/10 - More frustration as the match
against Banbury was called off not because our pitches were waterlogged but
because the access track and parking overflow areas were! With more notice
we could have relocated our fixture to Banbury but it was not to be.
Interesting that one of the older age groups was told to train on our
pitch! Coaches met instead for tea and bacon sandwiches and to plan out
the rest of the season, then watched the U14s in their cup match against Banbury
who very unlucky not to come back and win after coming back from 12-0 to
12-7.
21/02/10 - Rucking in the mud. New set
of rugby balls arrived. Long training match. We can't seem to get
all the lads to do what's necessary when the ball is loose on the floor, and the
rucking is still very messy. Lots more work to do! Still, good
session enjoyed by all.
20/02/10 - Tour fundraising at Carterton
Co-op - about 20 players and associated parents spent a couple of hours
bag-packing at the checkouts, and washing cars in the car park. £423.13
raised to go towards tour expenses. Well done everyone.
14/02/10 - A sad week for one of our number
which we marked with a short silence at the start of the session - best
wishes from parents/players to the family. Half term but still 20 players at training. And welcome to Jack
joining us for his first session with the squad.
07/02/10 - At last some competitive rugby in
2010 - our first match of the year v. Abingdon. A very solid performance
from our lads, with 2 matches played, mixing the teams each half. The
first match was won 28 - 12, with tries from Spud, Harrison, Hooky and Ollie,
conversions by Archie (2), Joe Sweeney and Gus. The second match
mixed up the teams a bit more and was won 14-7, tries from Harrison and Magic,
converted by Archie and JoeS. Strong running and tackling - maybe a
bit too much kicking, but overall a grand performance from the WItney
lads. Lots of photos on the Facebook page, and some to be posted on this
website.
31/01/10 - Another bitter Sunday morning
meant no full contact rugby on the hard pitches - the Shipston match was
cancelled however we managed a decent training session followed by a Rugby Rules
quiz in the changing rooms (hmmm - lot to learn I think!) and a meeting about
the end of season tour.
24/01/10 - Training at home - on the field at
last! After 5 weeks we finally made it back on to the field for a good
run-out. Much needed!
17/01/10 - Poor pitch conditions meant we had
a 1 hour indoor session at the Windrush Leisure Centre. Really good
actually, thanks to Pom for organising drills combining ball handling skills
with fitness exercises.
10/01/10 - All rugby cancelled due to frozen
pitches (Away v. Stratford-on-Avon).
03/01/10 - All rugby cancelled due to frozen
pitches (Training).
20/12/09 - All rugby cancelled
due to frozen pitches (Training).
12&13/12/09
– unbeaten weekend of rugby for the U12s.
Saturday
12th Landrover Cup (Wasps Region) at Maidenhead
RFC.
Something of the tour about this day out, leaving the club at 8am. Due to clubs dropping out our group in
the tournament had only three teams,each team awarded one walkover match.
The
first match was against Stanford-Le-Hope RFC from Essex, a team of large
players! Witney went 5-0 down in
the first half but were very competitive.
We let in a further try early in the second half to trail 10-0. However Witney had the edge in scrums
and lineouts, and a magnificent effort in the second half saw the lads turn the
game around, ending with a 10-10 draw.
We were on top at the end, and a couple of very close efforts could have
seen us win the match. Some vocal
entertainment between the coaches of both sides didn’t detract from a great game
of rugby where our lads did themselves proud. Tries scored by Ollie Toner and Harry
Gillam.
Our second match was against Slough RFC,
Witney starting as they’d finished against Stanford, but conceded an early
interception try completely against the run of play. The result was never really in doubt,
Witney being well on top to lead 15-5 at half time, with tries from Connor
Pummery, Alex (Magic) Marks and Dan (Spud) Wilson. The second half was less convincing, and
despite scoring another try through Magic Marks we allowed Slough back into the game, the final score being
20-15.
We ended with same points in our group as Stanford but as they had scored
5 tries against Slough we were second in the
group. We missed out on the semi
final as best 2nd place by 1 try! Stanford went on to be runners-up in the
final to Brighton, whom nobody would have
beaten!
As we had time to spare we played a friendly against Slough, giving everyone who hadn’t played in the
tournament a run-out. This ended
15-15, tries from Will (Wacker) Routledge, Magic and Jake
Edwards.
In the afternoon, we all went to watch Wasps v. Bayonne, Wasps winning
22-18.
A grand day out, unbeaten if not winners – well done lads.
Dog of the Day: Jake
Fisk.
Sunday 13th Away Match v. Oxford
After the great performance on Saturday we travelled over to Oxford’s Hinksey ground on
Sunday. Let’s be honest, pride was
at stake here given who we would meet on the Oxford team. Two matches played – A and B
teams.
The A team carried on where they’d left off on Saturday, a very
determined performance in a hard fought game. Oxford had the better rucking but could
not match our scrum, which meant that their back line could have little impact
on the game. Great tackling and
commitment too from all, this squad is really starting to click as a team! The match ended 0-0, a fair result to an
extremely exciting game.
The B team, actually a mix of As and Bs as was Oxfords, played an equally
competitive game, going 5-0 down initially but a try from Ollie Toner bringing
the score back to 5-5 at half time. The second half was a real battle, with Witney scoring a try by Gus Watts
late on to win the match 10-5.
Dog of the Day: Ollie Toner.
These lads are really starting to develop a team spirit, supporting each
other on and off the pitch. A very satisfying result, a great conclusion to the
weekend and an early Xmas present! Coaches ( and parents) very pleased and
very proud.
06/12/09
- Match at Home v. Supermarine. Another good display today.
Supermarine arrived short of a couple of players so we loaned them some of ours
- thanks to the lads who helped out. Four quarters played, and Witney won
all of them, the scores were probably 14-0, 14-5, 14-0, 14-5, the try-scorers
were probably Joe Sweeney 2, Joe Conway 1, Alex Marks at least 2, Jake Haines 1,
Harrison Toogood 1, (someone tell me who I've missed!) conversions shared
between Archie Fellows and Joe Sweeney. Some great running from Joe
Sweeney from full back, and nice to see some new names on the
score-sheet. Wayward kicking to the centre of the field needs to be
checked, otherwise good tackling, some solid scrummaging, and at times some
really good handling moves. Well done lads!
29/11/09
- Match at Home v. Stow-on-the-Wold. Happy coaches today! The U12s
clicked - and in the first match ran in a 21-5 victory over the visitors from
Stow, with tries from Alex (Magic) Marks, Connor (Pom)
Pummery and Daniel (Spud) Wilson, all converted by Joe
Sweeney. A powerful scrum performance and improved tackling meant the
result was never in doubt, with two or three more tries just missed as Witney
players were unable to ground the ball cleanly in the tackle. Still a bit
hesitant at the ruck, but all in all a great performance. In the second
match (against the same Stow team) Witney mixed up the players quite a bit, and
some loose tackling allowed Stow to take control in the first half.
Further changes produced a much tighter second half, Stow holding out to
win. A very enjoyable morning's rugby, with a well deserved result for the
A team which should boost confidence for the busy fixture list over the next few
weeks.
22/11/09
- Training at Home. Wind, rain, and the effects of the night before!
Tackling, rucking, forwards and backs play, league and union. Presume
Pom had stayed home to cook Sunday Lunch? :-) Thanks to those who turned
out early to help with Match Duty even though it wasn't really our
week.
15/11/09
- Match Away to Cirencester. Report from Doc: Today's game felt much more
positive - interesting that we were equal scores half time both games. We need
to have a bit more winning wish in the second halves! Our backs play was
better than Cirencester's. We have identified that too many players will
not tackle head on or sideways only from behind! Scrums were good but rucking
needs to be more heads down and driving - that was the only forward difference
today. For next session we may try small teams with a top tackler as
captain - 2 points tackle below shorts, 1 for tackle above shorts and 5 points
for try! See if we can get any more head on leg tackles that way!