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CUARLFC 24 Quins RL U-18’s 20
With late changes to the team due to a bug sweeping the colleges and the third game in seven days it was going to be a test of the strength and depth of the squad against a young junior academy side from Quins RL who had made their season debut the week previous against the touring France juniors.The weather was absolutely perfect for a flowing game as was the pitch which was a credit to groundsman and team manager Darren Wood and the lions kicked off into a strong breeze blowing in their faces.Quins started strongly and made a couple of raids into the light blue twenty metre area but good scrambling defence kept them out and was followed with a good period of concerted pressure which brought ball handling errors from the quins kick recovery team.The pressure was built up over a number of sets and finally prop Luke Tyson was lingering out on the right edge and got over from close range for the first points of the day.The try only served to fire up the young guns from london and they hit back with a converted try within five minutes of cambridge scoring and served to put the team on notice that this wouldn’t be a game in which the opposition were going to lie back.Another try followed after concerted pressure from the quins and with one minute on the clock in the first half remaining , four penalties on the bounce took quins from their try line to the light blue line and a converted try followed after players switched off.Half time came and the scoreline of 16-6 to quins was a fair reflection of a side who punished mistakes ruthlessly and whilst the field position had been quite even, the collisions had started to go in the favour of the lions which would have an effect at the end of the game.
The talk centred around a better end to sets when we had the ball in the green zone especially with the kicks which hadn’t tested the back three in the first half and hadn’t rewarded the great go forward by the forwards.
The second half was a carbon copy of the first with good set completion by both sets of forwards but the pressure exerted at the ruck invited cambridge to put some good ball sets together and with good switching of the direction of the point of attack the try finally came with Paddy Hunt crashing over on the left hand side.Converted it gave a score line of 16-12 to the quins and now the lions had to use the next sets well to get some momentum building and with great accuracy and length on the kicks from the halves James Hunt and Rupert Wingate-Saul , the errors started to occur in the quins go forward.A penalty to quins gave then some rare field position and off the back of it scored an unconverted try giving a scoreline of 20-12 and with the possession going back to them they had all the aces but the kick off was dropped just in front of the try line and the lions never looked back , pummeling the quins line at the ruck and on both edges until a great left to right shift caught them on numbers and Aaron Sonenfeld shot through for an unconverted try and the score line was narrowing with only eight minutes to go.
The light blues now had the momentum and were getting good metres going forward and after some concerted pressure on the quins line George Sykes somehow planted the ball down at the side of the posts and with the conversion cambridge hit the front for the first time in and hour.The control exerted by the light blues and a kicking game which was making massive metres for the team, led to another penalty for indiscipline from the quins resulted in an easy kick in front of the posts giving the final score of CUARLFC 24 Quins RL U-18’s 20.
Chairman Martin Woodcock was absolutely ecstatic with the performance shown by the squad , “I haven’t had as much chance this year to see this group of players play in games but the reports i have been receiving from John have been bang on the money.They are a very solid defensive unit and all the good work they do is on the back of good work in the collision.To notch an historic win against a team such as Quins is a fantastic boost for the players and gives everybody involved in the club a massive boost.“
The KCJ Man of the Match was Ignacio Quintana who played with a relentless aggression throughout the game and was indicative of the attitude of all the players during the game.