Nuns U16's carve out a fine win for Cup Plate final

Nuns U16's carve out a fine win for Cup Plate final

For all teams returning after the festive break, the first game back is always uphill but to have a Cup plate semi-final was a tall-order but Nuns, despite a slower start than wanted, carved out a fine win against a tenacious Earlsdon.

First blood was drawn by the visitors despite some heavy attacks on their goal line in the first 5 mins but the welcome return of George H nullified that one straightaway.

This followed a heavy period of offensive play by Earlsdon, pinning the Nuns in a corner for some time but couldn’t convert the pressure in to points. Sam came scything through a well-worked move to step several players and go under the posts followed by the extras from JJ to stretch-away at 12-7. Nick followed suit by great passing width from deep and scorching in a 50m jinking run to slide into the corner – 17-7.
Great supporting play by Oli S. saw another crash over try but the penalty count seemed to be mounting and with Earlsdon rallying and retaliating, the half-time score saw a much narrowed lead at 27-23.

The match official for day seemed to come up with some penalty decisions that neither set of coaches could fathom which did lead to some frustration and Earlsdon kept coming with some good interplay and backs moves but, again, not converting the vital pressure to points through handling errors and with a weakening Earlsdon side due to injuries, the match wore on with Nuns having to drop to 14 men to accommodate the visitors 13, providing well-deserved strategic "breathers".

The latter stages of the game saw the Nuns digging deeper and deeper and the grit and determination from all players saw a bevvy of tries and conversions, George H bagging a second, Nick two more for a hat trick (including another huge field-length run), James F joined the flurry with Jonesy adding a few more from the boot too. All in all, a very pleasing performance and confirming a place in our Cup Plate Final.

Details of this are to follow but the score summary sits below as follows :
George H – 2 x T, Sam – 1 x T, James F. – 1 x T
Nick C. – 3 x T, Oli – 1 x T
Jack J – 4 x C

Our next encounter is yet to be mapped for the 14th January but a great start to the second half of the season – well done lads !