U17’s Tour Italy - Report…
September 24, 2008
Newbury RFC U17’s play Twin Town in Italian Tour
Newbury played two games in northwest Italy. The first was against Feltre, which became a twin town of Newbury in 2003, the second at Treviso, one of the most successful clubs in Italian rugby.
The Feltre rugby club has employed ex-Leicester and England prop Steve Redfern as its professional coach in order to raise the standard of their game. As a result, they welcomed the opportunity to play Newbury and gain an insight into English playing style and performance.
During the tour the squad was invited to a morning reception in the Town Hall hosted by the Mayor, the Municipal Councillor for Sport, the Head of the Town Twinning Committee and representatives of Feltre Rugby Club. This reciprocated the visit two years ago Newbury received from Feltre XV.
Rugby was singled out by officials as an important means to create new friendships and strengthen the relationships between our respective towns. If the Feltre hospitality is anything to go by, Newbury has won some excellent friends at the foot of the Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy.
In the afternoon they went on to play a victorious game against Feltre, winning 48-0.
Less than 24 hours later the Newbury team were back on the pitch at Treviso, albeit with injuries sidelining some players. They again won against the local team in a hard fought contest, which saw control, communication and strong team spirit dominate over a physically larger side. The margin of victory this time came in at 25-5.
As they progress from Youth to Adult rugby, this was the final performance by this group under the coaching of Bill Brogden and Jim Wilson. Fitting then that against the Italian Academy champions it was surely also their finest hour.
The Italian Job Part 1 - Newbury Under 17s vs Feltre - (20/09/2008)
U17's v Feltre (Click to enlarge) Photo from Sporting Billy
From the start the physical superiority of the Newbury side was evident, and on 7 minutes Jack Caunt charged down a Feltre kick. Pete Burns was well released and was unlucky to be stopped just short of the line. But the ball was recycled and two huge miss passes presented Jamie Mcintyre with a run-in on the opposite side of the field. George Rossiter made no mistake with the kick. For a while Feltre came back into the game but excellent Newbury tackling, notably by Sam Jones and James Monger kept them well at bay.
Brave defence by Feltre, coupled with too many handling errors by Newbury and the temptation for the forwards to take it “a phase too far” saw the score remain at 7-0 until 25 minutes. Then Mcintyre ignored the overlapping Burns, choosing to cut inside, and when he was stopped Michael Hobbs followed up to score between the posts. Another Rossiter conversion made it 14-0. Soon after Rossiter kicked long, Monger followed up to nail the gathering full-back, and the pack arrived together to disrupt all Feltre’s attempts to clear, with Ben West picking up to score out wide (19-0). This time the conversion narrowly missed. Then on 28 minutes the backs, now combining with real fluency, moved the ball around well. Mcintyre cut inside again and this time released Monger to score. The conversion made it 26-0 at half-time.
For 9 minutes of the second half, Newbury moved the ball with great style but were unable to add more points. Then Mcintyre put in a huge up-and-under and the full-back was unable to hold it. Newbury pressured to win the ball and swung it wide to the left with Darren Smith making the touchdown. The conversion was just too difficult - 31-0. Dom Tarquini emphasised the growing dominance by catching the kick-off and bullocking 30 metres through the Feltre pack. When the ball was fed out, Newbury had too many players in the line and Chris Lawrence was able to cut simply through a gap and score next to the posts. That conversion was good, so with 20 minutes to go the score was 38-0.
On 28 minutes, Burns arrived at great speed to disrupt a Feltre movement. Newbury foraged for the ball, and swung it right this time, ending with Jamie Futcher making a none-too-easy final surge to touch the ball down. No conversion, so 43-0. Right on the whistle Lawrence, Smith and West combined well to release Burns, but he put a foot in touch. But the pressure continued and right at the death, another fluent set of passes by the backs left Burns out on his own, wide on the left, to score an eighth try.
Final score 48-0, great driving pressure throughout by the Newbury pack and really fluent passing by the backs once they got going. George Rossiter’s kicking was excellent, 4 conversions from eight didn’t really tell the true story.
Much credit too must go to Feltre for their never-say-die attitude.
Chris Lawrence was named man of the match for Newbury with the Feltre scrum-half receiving the reciprocal award.
Newbury: Drysdale, Love(Martin), Caunt(Sanders); Dyer, Sherratt; Hobbs(Tarquini), Jones, West; T.Thorne(S.Wilson), Rossiter; Burns(Futcher), C.Lawrence, Monger, Smith; Mcintyre
The Italian Job Part 2 - Newbury Under 17s vs Treviso - (21/09/2008)
With Newbury stripped of Monger and Sanders by injury, several players looking tired after a long day on Saturday, and Treviso appearing incredibly big and strong in their warm-up, it seemed this would be a bigger challenge. Early indications were this was true, but Dyer stole a line-out early on, a pattern which would be repeated throughout the game by Newbury’s three big line-out jumpers, and Rossiter kicked calmly to touch. On 6 minutes Newbury forced a line 5 metres from the Treviso line and recycled twice for Hobbs to finish off an excellent forwards’ try. Rossiter’s huge conversion attempt from the touchline fell just short.
Treviso stepped up the power but Newbury defended resolutely and Rossiter continued to kick to touch with calm assurance. A huge Treviso kick saw Darren Smith catch brilliantly on his own goal-line and the have the confidence to run from defence, with Chris Lawrence and Pete Burns continuing the good work to take Newbury back into the Treviso half. Rossiter, Lawrence and Jamie Futcher repeated the act to set up a scrum on the Treviso 22. Hobbs took it from the back of the scrum, and fed Rossiter who fed Lawrence. Lawrence was stopped just short of the line wide on the right. He was injured in the challenge and new find Daniel Thorne came into the match on 20 minutes. Watching this boy play with such calm assurance, it was really hard to believe that he was just 16.
When the game restarted after the injury, Newbury pressured Treviso into touching down in their in-goal area. Hobbs took the ball of the back of the 5m scrum, but was stopped just short.
As Treviso came forward and applied more pressure, the referee awarded a stream of penalties against Newbury. The Newbury support were perplexed by these decisions, and voiced their disapproval when Treviso scored after what appeared to be a knock-on. The conversion came back from the post. Shortly after, a heated confrontation between Hobbs and a Treviso player led to Newbury being awarded a penalty which Rossiter converted in style (8-5 Newbury).
As the second-half began, the disgruntled Newbury supporters were buoyed by the news that Delia Jones had found a toilet with a seat in the clubhouse. But the penalty count continued to grow, perhaps due in part to the language barrier making it hard for the referee to explain to the Newbury players exactly what he wanted.
Newbury remained calm in the face of adversity and the defensive catching and kicking by Smith, his wingers and Rossiter was exceptional. On 15 minutes Sam Jones paid the price for all the penalties, being yellow-carded for playing the ball off the ground. 5 minutes later Rossiter was also harshly yellow-carded for tackling the man without the ball. Newbury seemed destined to lose this match, but nobody had bothered to read the script to the remaining 13 players. They fought tooth-and-nail to preserve their 8-5 lead until Jones returned, then a penalty to Newbury on the Treviso 10 metre line saw Daniel Thorne step-up to kick for goal. With a kick like a mule, he cleared the bar to give Newbury a little breathing space at 11-5.
With 3 minutes left and Newbury back up to full-strength, Newbury won a scrum against the head on the Treviso 22. Hobbs fed West who somewhat inevitably fed Daniel Thorne who scored under the posts. Thorne kicked his own try for 18-5.
From the restart, Ben West ran the ball out of his own 22 as far as the half-way line. He was stopped but slipped the ball brilliantly to Josh Love who showed the speed of a winger as he ran fully 50 metres to score. The conversion was the last kick of the match and it thus ended 25-5 to Newbury.
As they progress from Youth to Adult rugby, this was the final performance by this group under the coaching of Bill Brogden. Fitting then that against the Italian Academy champions it was surely also their finest hour.
Newbury: Drysdale, Love(Martin), Caunt; Dyer(Tarquini), Sherratt; Hobbs, Jones, West; T.Thorne(S.Wilson), Rossiter; Burns, C.Lawrence(D.Thorne), Mcintyre, Futcher; Smith
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