On a warm October afternoon in Naarden, the Cubs came back from a slow first ten minutes to compete against a good T’Gooi side, who with HRC are the stand-out teams in the U14 age group this year. The match finished 50-17 to T’Gooi, but with BSN giving the home team a 26-0 lead before they found their intensity, it could have been a much closer game.

The match started with BSN gaining ground until they conceded a questionable penalty in the T’Gooi twenty-two. The ball went left to the T’Gooi winger. Lachlan made a last ditch tackle and the winger knocked on, but T’Gooi won the scrum and their scrum half scored under the posts.

The T’Gooi number ten broke the BSN lines, offloaded to the number seven, who side stepped a BSN tackle to score under the posts and extend T’Gooi’s lead.

Atlanta was isolated on the wing, by a good T’Gooi defensive line and stripped of the ball, but BSN won back possession under their posts, only to gift a try to T’Gooi with a loose lofted pass.

Ten minutes gone and BSN were losing 21-0, but they started to respond and bring an intensity to their game that had been missing. BSN turned over a T’Gooi ruck, who then conceded a penalty for offside. Quick thinking by William had T’Gooi back-pedalling and conceding another penalty. A charge by Jacob was recycled left to Alexander, who dummied the opposition, but couldn’t quite make the pass to Atlanta on the overlap.

Great defence in the twenty-two, led to Lachlan winning the ball from a relieving defensive BSN kick, and they were making gains, bundling T’Gooi into touch and winning line outs. But, after ten minutes of BSN edging the play, T’Gooi won a BSN scrum and their runner punched through the BSN defensive line to score their fourth try.

BSN were not cowed and a great tackle by Jacob and fierce rucking, won the ball in the T’Gooi twenty-two. The ball went right from Alexander to Duncan to Lachlan, who still had work to do on the wing, but squeezed in a deserved BSN try.

They maintained their intensity, with strong tackling and finished the half by bundling the T’Gooi winger into touch, when he was threatening to get away. In the first ten minutes, that opportunity would have led to a T’Gooi try, but BSN finished competing well, even if they were 26-5 down. With more intensity at the start, the score would have been much closer.

T’Gooi started the second half well, winning a BSN line out on the twenty-two and diving in to score at close range.

But, a T’Gooi knock on in their own half, gave Lachlan the opportunity to break from the scrum and offload to William. The play spread wide to Duncan, who played in Atlanta to score in the corner.

T’Gooi came back again, putting together a number of phases in the BSN half, until the BSN defence was eventually breached. They continued to have the edge with possession, except for the occasional interruption by Jacob, until they ran in and scored near the posts. And, when T’Gooi won a BSN line out five yards from the BSN try line, T’Gooi’s big number ten broke through on the blindside to stretch their lead to 50-10.

BSN were still competitive and from the restart, Lachlan bundled a T’Gooi player into touch. The line out led to a BSN scrum, and Lachlan burst through two tackles to score under the posts. William converted the try and the game finished 50-17.

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