With illness and injury depleting the OB's Under 12's, we turned up at Braintree with a group of 9 players, and with a little bit of help from Braintree RFC lending us a couple of players it was game on.

For the first 15-20 minutes of the 25 minute half we could not have been prouder of the boys. The coaches gave some very specific instructions, all based on what we had been working on in training and they were executed to perfection.
The boys we securing rucks and spreading play. We took Braintree from one side of the field to the other and scored a much deserved try. The work rate continued and excellent ball retention with crisp passes meant more scores went on the board.

Towards the end of the first half we could see the efforts of the first 15 - 20 minutes were starting to show and we lost a bit of concentration in our positioning. The defensive line becoming staggered and the attacking formation became too bunched. During this period Braintree made a few breaks, and in turn caused us to make some mistakes which earned them some much deserved scores.

We came out after half time playing very similar to how we played at the end of the first half. However, our rucking during this period, both contesting for the ball and securing our own ball was really controlled, and after conceding another score, we composed ourselves, and dug deep and went toe to toe with Braintree for the remainder of the match scoring some great trys.

A few special mentions from the game, firstly Sonny Bill Toby for an audacious out the back pass to Archie which almost led to Archie going over for a try.

Secondly, Archie for some great rucking, support play, ball carrying and generally making a complete nuisance of himself around the rucks.

Finally, Kyran & Sam, what a game they both. They hit almost every ruck between them, which gave us a really good platform to build from, with Kyran edging it as our player of the match for some bulldozing runs, being a constant threat around the park, and scoring his first points for OB’s.

However we can't forget the rest of the team.
Logan for good running lines and endless tackles, Wills for controlling the play from the 10 position and making some lung busting unstoppable breaks, despite being poorly, Johnny run his socks off and was a continuous presence in driving the team forward at every opportunity, Ollie for a keep going attitude and working really hard after a couple of unforced errors in the first half, and finally Wills for cropping up in every possible position on the field to give us forward ball in attack and making crucial tackles in defence.

Overall the match was a great spectacle for rugby, with both teams working incredibly hard and playing the game in the true spirit of the sport.

The boys have set themselves a great platform to build upon away at Billericay this coming Sunday.