Morley U11s v Cleckheaton U11s

Morley U11s V Cleckheaton U11s Rugby Match Report - 25/11/07

Morley U11s' took another away trip to North Leeds opposition Moortown, to play a couple of games against fellow visitors Cleckheaton and the hosts, in slightly soft and damp playing conditions.

Cleckheaton were the opponents in the first game and chose to kick-off.

Within the early minutes of the half, Morley's prop Luke Metcalfe and back Lewis Starr, both produced a couple of dazzling runs, only to be stopped by Cleckheaton's stout defence. Morley retained good possession of the ball and took the game to Cleckheaton, with fly-half Chris 'The Saw' Sawicki eventually scoring Morley's opening try.

Although scrum-half Joe Firth failed to make the conversion, he almost made up for the missed kick, when he was held up on Cleckheaton's goal line.

Unbelievably against the run of play Cleckheaton managed to score the next try, to make the scores level at 5-5.

Then just before half-time Lewis Starr was at it again, running down the left hand side touch-line only to be bungled into touch-in goal and denied what would have been an excellent try. Into the half-time interval the scores where locked at 5-5.

Morley started the second half just like the first with plenty of possession and the forwards taking the game to Cleckheaton, and so up stepped burley prop forward Luke Metcalfe to score Morley's second try, and with Chris Sawicki kicking the conversion it made the score 12-5 to Morley. Cleckheaton then scored a converted try to claw back into the game at 12-12.

But, it was that player again prop Luke Metcalfe on a determined run only to be illegally high tackled by a Cleckheaton defender. From the resulting Morley penalty near the Cleckheaton line, forward Rhys Sharp took the ball at pace and managed to drive his way over the line for the last Morley try, and with Joe Firth coolly kicking the conversion, there was only going to be one outcome to this match, a Morley victory.

Morley were the better side for most of the match and fully deserved their win over Cleckheaton, displaying some excellent all round rugby skills and technique.

FINAL SCORE: Morley 19 - 12 Cleckheaton.

Try scorers:

Chris Sawicki, Luke Metcalfe and Rhys Sharp.

Conversions:

Chris Sawicki and Joe Firth.

Team:

Luke Metcalfe, Joe Horner, Thomas-John Cook, Benjamin Clay, Rhys Sharp, Oliver Ayers, Edward Kelly, Joe Firth, Chris Sawicki, James Fuller, Alex Stevenson, Ryley Wan, Lewis Starr, Lawrence Earnshaw, Sam Hood and Cameron Wallis.

Morley U11s V Moortown U11s Rugby Match Report

The second and last game of the morning was against Moortown and all of Morley's spectators were hoping for a repeated playing performance of the first game - how wrong they were.

Straight away Moortown were on the score sheet down the right hand side with poor tackling from the Morley defence, to go 7-0 up. Then after the restart from Joe Firth exactly the same thing happened again, with the Morley tackling even worse than before, almost non-existent, to let Moortown tale a 14-0 lead.

Afterwards Morley came back into the game with a little period of possession but were unable to breach the Moortown line. Following this and for the third time in the first half Morley's poor tackling had let them down again, allowing Moortown another very soft try.

A lively run by winger Lawrence Earnshaw brightened up the proceedings and with Joe Horner producing a couple of turnovers from better tackling, things seemed to be improving for Morley. But, this was short lived, for Moortown managed yet another try and conversion making the score 28-0. Just before half-time Ryley Wan defended well to stop another Moortown attack with the referee's whistle ending the half.

The second half display was a very big improvement from what had been seen in the first half. Morley again showed what they were capable of, with decent defending and one or two probing attacks to trouble the Moortown defence but without any success. The last vital passes just failing to go to hand.

Moortown regrouped and managed to score one more try before the end of the match.

A hard lesson had been learnt by the Morley players today, a consistent level of performance needed throughout the matches. One bad half over shadowing three good ones.

FINAL SCORE: Moortown 33 - 0 Morley.

Try scorers:

Conversions:

Team:

Luke Metcalfe, Joe Horner, Thomas-John Cook, Benjamin Clay, Rhys Sharp, Oliver Ayers, Edward Kelly, Joe Firth, Chris Sawicki, James Fuller, Alex Stevenson, Ryley Wan, Lewis Starr, Lawrence Earnshaw, Sam Hood and Cameron Wallis.