Ohoka

Yesterday we played an extremely physical game at Mandeville.
It was actually a great chance to reflect on a season where all the players have made great strides forward. Logan and Travis picked up our team awards but they could have gone to any number of players on the field. There are times I think some of us forget that these boys are just 7 and 8 years of age. We watch the big boys on TV and start to compare. I doubt some of the current All Blacks showed as much potential at the same age.
In fact some never played rugby!
Well I am happy to say all the boys have improved over this year. Maybe they have not made the advancements we experts from the couch think they should have but all have learned a lot more about the game of rugby.
Bailey, Ben and Blake continue to show us how fast they are in the open. These boys have the ability to finish off movements once we start to pass the ball into the space a bit better. Logan and Jayden are developing their all round game. In the past few weeks they have both increased their tackle count and both are getting their hands on the ball more. Jayden's near miss yesterday showed us again the pace he possesses.
James and Sam ran strongly and tackled well. They have a developed a good partnership this year and work well as a unit. Both boys have the ability to bust tackles. John Luke again tackled and ran strongly he is another player who has enjoyed the shift to contact and he is always willing to put his body on the line to make the opposition stop him as he goes forward on attack and defence.
With only one game to go it is a bit of a shame as the boys are just starting to hit their straps.
Oh well we will look forward to the Amberley games next week.

Ashley Blue

With another a game out of the way and the result being a fantastic effort from both teams it was really tough to write this. It seemed right from the start the tension in the air was coming from the sideline. Why is it that?
Why is it that no matter how hard the children try there are people who want to make it ugly for everyone concerned. Well anyway amongst the tension there was rugby played and Jayden had his best game of the season. He tackled and ran harder than ever before and deserved our player of the Day award! John Luke tackled and made sure that people knew he was on the field every time he ran. Sam and James were carrying the ball well and Luke and Logan worked well to get the ball up off the deck. Blake's speed and his eye for a gap gets better every game and Jack increased his number of tackles again this game. Ben,Travis, Bailey all ran with pace and were great at supporting the ball carrier throughout the game.
I would like to thank all our supporters who kept their cool, unlike the ref, who, if wearing rubber gloves, may have shoved the whistle somewhere dark!
Pete , you were awesome having to put up with a Saracens style approach wish I was as cool as you.
Thanks Peta and Alicia for the chips they were awesome, especially the extra packet we found after every kid had left the table.
Ohoka this weekend up there. Lets have a smashfest with our running and our tackling.
Bring it on.

Sorry to all you avid followers out there, all 3 of you, about the lateness of this match report. Too many late nights with Alberto and Andy.
OMG that sounds incredibly dodgy. I have been watching the Tour de France!!!!

Well what a wet and greasy old day it was on Saturday.
We came up against a really big side in United with our guys struggling again with the first up tackles.
United had two players who ran straight and hard and we struggled to put them on the deck time and time again.
Straight running is key on days like this! Travis showed how important it is when he drove up the middle of the field and set James up for his first of two tries.
Running sideways in wet conditions just makes you an easier target, as the wet ground slows everyone down.
great to see Jack getting stuck in and making some telling tackles. Luke has lifted his game again and Logan put his body on the line time and time again.
We will learn eventually that the ball when passed moves faster than the man and hopefully we will make those passes to put players outside us into space. Learning to set up tries is tough because all we want to do is run with the ball!
Blake continues to distribute the ball in tackles and Jiggs would have scored if not for Dad's honesty!!( No, well done Simon, appreciated your input)
Sam ran well again and John Luke was at his devastating best in the tackle and on the run. Ben,once again, covered a lot of ground running with the ball. Bailey continues to show his pace in bursts and when he focusses on his rugby he is a real match winner.

Final score United 30-us 20
Tries to James (2), John Luke, and Sam.

We have 3 games left in the regular season, that means at least 3 practices. Let's see if we can work on our passing and our first up tackling right up to the end of the season.

What a high scoring Match it was on Saturday. In fact everything was moving so quickly that I have only just settled down to write something at my computer. Some 3 days later!!
With the Ashley Team scoring 17 tries and the opposition scoring 14 attack and not defence was the name of the game. First up tackles were often missed and this contributed to a high scoring game. Jack scored a great try after a turn over from our team and I lost count how many Sam got! Jayden also got a good try using his speed to race to the corner and score.
Travis showed the level pf commitment we need by attempting to smash anything that had the ball and in some cases anything that didn't. Travis earned the Man of the match award. Blake's play making earned him the MVP award with his off loading skills coming to the fore. Luke ran well a with the ball in had and John- Luke was at his aggressive best in attack and defence. Ben and Bailey ran well again and showed plenty of pace. James showed that he is developing an all round game in attack and defence.
With the middle week of the school holidays off we will look to train again on the 15th before we play United.

It was a muddy cold old day up at Oxford on Saturday. It was obvious to many on the sideline that the boys were short of a training run or two. We seemed to not want to make those tackles and we really struggled to contain the speedy number 7 from Oxford.

One thing that went our way was our drive . It was pleasing to see on a number of occasions our awesome body positions as we drove back the Oxford players.

We do need to hold on to the ball in these situations and we often found turning it over lead to having no defensive line left to tackle.

John Luke slotted back into his old ways and tackled and ran his heart out scoring some good tries. His presence in the team has been missed over the last couple of weeks.

Sam's rich vein(not related to Craig's veins)of try scoring continues with 11 tries in the last three games. Four more this week. Travis continues to improve in every game he plays in. His running and tacklng has come a long way since the start of the season.

James also scored a hat trick of tries this week

We do need to improve our defence though. It seems without the constant contact at practices we forget how to get a shoulder on the opposition.

Thanks to Simon who took some great photos this week and to Michelle's dad who took some crackers last week.

I will try to use as many as I can.

Us 45 them 70.

Tries Sam 4
James 3
John Luke 2

vs Kaiapoi

Another tough game with both sides trading tries quite often. Impressing this week with a good dose of controlled aggression was Jayden Neilsen. Jayden ran and tackled with a great deal of passion. The great thing about this week was we were all involved, every playere tackled every player ran hard.

I noticed this week we are running in support of the ball carrier so much better. When Sam scored one of his many tries we had three players who ran with him just being available for the pass. Great work guys.

Another thing we are doing well is making the tackle and getting to our feet to play the ball it is great to see so many potential Ritchie McCaws out there.

Our Player of the day this week was Jayden with Travis Wiki showing an awesome tackling ability to earn the teams most valuable player.

Tries this week to;

Ben

Bailey (2)

James

Sam (4)

A win to Ashley 40 to 30.

Saracens Red

With the best view in the house from the Number 3 stand, I watched a vastly improved Ashley side.We are attacking the tackled ball area so much better now than we did earlier in the season. Vastly improved performances from Luke Gill, Blake Murch and Logan Jeffery, spread the work load around a great deal more. These three guys began to show a greater level of commitment to the tackle and this just helps the team to improve. James got the try scoring rolling with a well earned try. John-Luke was the next go in. Bailey was on the board next and he ended up scoring 3. Blake also scored in the first half. Sam woke up in the second half and crashed over for 3 awesome tries.

We are still struggling with first up tackles and really need to improve on our defence. With 8 games to go it will be one of the things we will work on. There are still a couple of us who could do a lot more through out the game each week.

Final Score Ashley 45- Them 40

Sam 3

Bailey 3

Blake

James

John Luke tries.

Thanks to Peta for organising a ref this week as our usual guy fakes his injury.

Thanks also to the Saracens coach who always makes these games entertaining.

Once again a big thank you to our supporters who are great to have on the sidelines each week.