CRUFC U15 10 - 15 Shelford

U15s County Cup Semi-Final - Cambridge 10  Shelford 15

 

A day of “if onlys” for Cambridge U15s.  

 

There was much to admire in the Cambridge team’s performance today, but it was not until the last 5 minutes that the full power of the team was demonstrated.  In that period, free of the errors that had proved so costly during the match, Cambridge demonstrated the progress that has been made during this season and almost took the match to a seemingly unlikely tie and extra time.

 

Almost the whole of the first half was played Cambridge’s half of the field.  However, excellent defensive work by the whole team kept Shelford from scoring.  In fact, it was Cambridge who scored first.  Following a rare breakout of defence, courtesy of an excellent clearing kick by Luca, Cambridge won a penalty from the lineout, some 30 metres from the Shelford line.  A tapped penalty from Ollie to Hugo who  broke the gain line, offloaded to Luca, who set James free to burst through the Shelford defence for a great try.  5-0.

 

Unfortunately, Shelford got back into the game with a try in the corner after Shelford stole a Cambridge lineout and kicked ahead, winning the race to the corner. 5-5 at half time.

 

The second half started with Cambridge beginning to attack the Shelford defence, but could not find a way through; the support play that has been a focus of training and was such a feature of last week’s performance, unfortunately missing.  Instead, it was Shelford that scored 2 tries due to Cambridge errors, neither converted. 5-15

 

With 5 minutes remaining, we now saw what this Cambridge team can do, when really fired up.  Cambridge attacked the Shelford back line, however, knocked the ball on.  Cambridge won the scrum against Shelford’s put in and drove to the line.  From the ruck that formed Cambridge drove over.  10-15.

 

…and then, saving the best to the last play of the match, from Shelford’s kick off, Cambridge collected the ball just outside their 22 and drove upfield, going through the phases, recycling the ball, until less than 5 metres from the Shelford line.  Sensational teamwork, support and rugby…but sadly our team could not quite convert this great drive into a final try. 

 

If only….