U15 IPSWICH 0 - 22 SOUTH WOODHAM FERRERS 17 February 2008

Ipswich 0 – 22 South Woodham Ferrers

A lovely bright and windless day, saw the “return” game against South Woodham Ferrers, an Essex side unbeaten in their league action this season. The scheduled “away” fixture in November’s half term, had been switched to Ipswich as a result of pitch difficulties, and had seen SWF run out easy winners against a developing Ipswich squad at that time, 12 – 32.

The coaches were hoping to do better this time, with the squad having a more settled look about it, and a recent run of success against Clacton, Stowmarket and Colchester B.

It turned out to be a hard fought first half, and although Ipswich only rarely escaped into SWF territory, the visitors found a solid defensive line very difficult to break. Their handling wasn’t brilliant at first, and Ben Grimwood at full back, with great skill and verve, dealt with several chipped and high balls as the visitors tried to kick their way over the Ipswich backs. Tom Rice in the thick of the action as usual, had to clear out loose ball on the ground at crucial moments.

The referee, Mr Paul Carr, was letting the game flow with few interruptions, but did give cause for a moment’s confusion to spectators and players. On 15 minutes, when giving a penalty to SWF after a maul had been illegally pulled down, he signaled incorrectly towards Ipswich. When George Solomon stepped up to take the kick, Mr Carr turned and gave a 10m penalty on top, as he thought Ipswich hadn’t retreated! Luckily, no score resulted from such injustice.

However, on 20 minutes, the next penalty did give rise to a score, and it came after SWF had given inappropriate advice to Mr Carr in the Ipswich 22. The Ipswich line outs were being easily read by SWF, and it was not a surprise that they took charge of this one again, against the throw, and with better handling this time, the ball went down their line for a score in Ipswich left hand corner. It was reminiscent of the scores that their fast running, and very mobile back line had made in November, and rather ominous that they scored the first time their three quarters hadn’t dropped the ball. 0 – 5 as no conversion.

Ipswich held out, but only just, reaching the break clinging on to their discipline, and sometimes the occasional handbag, and only down by the one score. It was a good performance against an obviously stronger opposition. The Ipswich forwards in the loose had done particularly well, to be first to the break down and consistently beating the Essex side in the ruck.

The second half saw the visitors upping their game, reducing errors,creating problems for Ipswich in all areas, and showed good forward support in the offload. The Ipswich tackling was spearheaded by Jorge Pashler captaining the side for the first time, and for a tall bloke, he makes it look very easy by getting in low and under the hand offs, but SWF increased their lead in only the 32nd minute, this time spinning the ball out to their left wing, having capitalized on a hasty and sliced clearance kick in the Ipswich 22. It was not converted, but the writing was on the wall. 0 – 10.

Their next try on 39 minutes, was a well worked and pre-planned move, getting a flanker into the line to create the overlap, who very unselfishly, passed it to the left winger to score, despite being virtually unchallenged on the line. The SWF coach wasn’t so flattering to his forward, appearing to suggest the chap hadn’t the brains to put it down himself. Unconverted 0 - 15.

Ipswich tried to respond by with some moves of their own, but the changes to personnel did not bring about any improvement in fortune. Hat Trick Trung did not get so much of the ball out wide this week, and could not chase down any long kicks with faster opposition covering back. Ipswich line outs were faltering, so that the backs saw little cleanly presented ball and the tackles started to be missed as the pressure mounted. The final score was again in favour of the visitors, who scored under the posts a little too easily, as Ipswich tired. A drop conversion meant the final score was 0-22.

Whilst the points difference was very similar to that of the previous encounter, SWF had not been able to cross the line so often, testimony to the defensive efforts of the Ipswich squad. Attention in training is to be paid to line out routines, and to passing the ball down the line at speed, and we look forward to further encounters perhaps in Essex next time, to measure improvement against this well drilled and coached side.


Julian Haywood Smith