Sub-16/18 v Técnico

View images and read match report here.

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Click here to view Peter Fay's images from the sub-18 game: http://goo.gl/a4Snp

Click here to view Peter Fay's images from the sub-16 game: http://goo.gl/QeGa5

Sub-18 Match Report by Damian Steele

The Sub 18´s enjoyed their second victory of the season, against Tecnico on Sunday afternoon.  Playing in drizzly conditions, the boys defended a 10-0 half time lead by holding off a spirited second half performance from Tecnico, to eventually finish the match 10-5 winners.

St Julian´s dominated field position and possession from the outset, and ran in two first half tries, courtesy of Tom Vilar and Ben Rough.  The first try was a great team effort, with sustained pressure leading to a number of penalties in the attacking zone, which eventually saw Tom Vilar crash over from close range.  The second was a very rewarding try for the boys, with a great scrum from the forwards, who were giving their opposition about 10kg per man, capitalised on by the backs with Ben Rough slicing through and scoring out wide.  Another scrum a few minutes later led to another well executed backs move, again resulting in The Roughler splitting the defense and cross the try line, but in trying to promote the position to under the posts he put his foot on the dead ball line, resulting in a 22m drop kick to Tecnico, instead of a 5 pointer under the posts to us.  

There was an air of confidence and excitement at the half time break, as the boys smelt blood and were looking forward to running up a big score on the opposition.  Unfortunately, an inability to stick to the game plan, basic fundamental errors, and a lack of discipline led to us defending a lot in the second half, including holding our line for the last 5 minutes while Tecnico peppered us trying to equalise and give themselves a conversion for victory.  Thankfully, the spirit and commitment remained strong, and we managed to keep our line intact for the highly rewarding victory.

There was impressive performances across the board, with the forwards again playing well as a unit, and providing a nice platform for the backs to show some glimpses of brilliance.  Special mention must go to Jaime Almeida who was on our Man of the Match today, for a very gutsy and committed performance.  Jaime is a quiet achiever who does a lot of the dirty work (rucking, tackling, cleaning up loose ball) that others shirk, and today he was everywhere in a very high quality effort.

We get back to work this week and travel to Montemor next Saturday, where we will hope to continue our development and improvement.

TRY SCORERS

Tom Vilar, Ben Rough

MAN OF THE MATCH

Jaime Almeida