What a match! On Saturday October 16, we headed to Driebergen to meet The Pink Panthers and their pink poles. The game was important: with Amstelveen having won all their games and leading the poule, the question was then to know who of The Pink Panthers or Wassenaar Warriors would come second, both teams having won 3 out of 4 games.

As we were walking down to the game, we could sense some pressure and concentration: playing away does come with a slight disadvantage.

We all noticed Pink Panther’s number 22 at warm up, who was tall, strong and quick. He looked as if he would be a tough opponent, and he was: a great player, scoring all the tries of the Pink Panthers, but also passing the ball along and helping the team move forward. He ended up with the most dirt on his shirt, and he set up an example for all of the players on the field. He’s the kind of player everyone would want in their team!

The Warriors had a plan, and they executed it really quickly. First, they managed to tackle number 22 the first chance he had with the ball. Seeing this tremendous player down lifted the spirits and managed to score 2 tries, one converted. The ball was circulating rapidly, the rucks were hardly ever lost and sometimes even won.

There was a swift reaction by The Pink Panthers and they scored a few minutes later. With only one try ahead, there wasn’t any room for hesitation and the Warriors scored another one with the Panthers replying. Even though the parents were vocal, we could see that the team had to stay focused. We scored another try before half time, and we had a slight lead.

The second half was quite similar, Warriors scoring almost 2 tries for every time the Panthers reached our line.

There were a lot of scrums during the game (mostly because of handling mistakes from both sides, both teams being under constant pressure). Most of the scrums were won by the Warriors, and that was some good news, because as soon as they could get their feet and hands on the ball, number 22 would jump out of the scrum and run. He was often tackled by our brave Warriors, and they sometimes won the ball in the ruck. Whenever they missed their tackles or lose the rucks, the Panthers would score, so the good defence and great tackles put up by the Wassenaar Warriors was essential in the final score, 45-24.

A well deserved 2nd place for our players.

As coach Ian told me after the game: “This team of 12-13 year old kids played way above their age and all turned up to win and to really give it their very best. Like it was their last game and it was close to perfect. Every criticism I heard was basically what I heard in senior teams and that sure is a compliment. What a great bunch of lads!”

Thanks again to our coaches who managed to improve this team. And thank you to the parents for the support. Now to the next phase of 5 games !

Sébastien Bonnefoy
Team manager Cubs

Image: Rugby-shots www.rugby-shots.nl

Image: Rugby-shots www.rugby-shots.nl

Image: Rugby-shots www.rugby-shots.nl

 

2 Comments

  1. Pelle Knoop on October 19, 2021 at 10:25 pm

    Dear Wassenaar warriors,
    you indeed played a good game, you were very eager to the ball, which made it difficult for us, the pink panthers, to attack and defend. The most impressive was the applause of the Warriors when players returned after a little injury. This is rugby as it belongs to be, RESPECT!

    Kind regards,
    Pelle Knoop, number 22

    Ps.
    Thank you for your nice words!

    • Ian on October 20, 2021 at 9:41 am

      Thank you for your comment ‘number 22’ . It’s a credit to the game when players, like yourself, notice and appreciate things outside of the actual play and then make the time and effort to type it out.
      We also noticed in the game you didn’t only try to smash through the defence, but you also used other skills. That quality of play will keep you further ahead the older you get.
      Good work Pelle.

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