Moseley 1 – Bromsgrove 3

This was the opening fixture for the under 10’s, and we knew from last year that the Bromsgrove boys would be a tough challenge to start with, and so they proved to be. Although our boys were in many departments bigger than the Bromsgrove boys and we have worked hard on winning the break down in training – we were consistently outrucked, outmauled and outscrummaged.

With, it could be argued some French luck for their first try, Bromsgrove had by early in the second half doubled their lead and try as the Moseley boys might, it did not look like the back line sprinters were ever going to break a dogged and aggressive (in a good way) Bromsgrove defence. Then from the restart Niall spotted a gap and with some simple rugby sent George on a run which covered near on half the pitch to score a great Moseley try – could the boys do it again?  Unfortunately not – Bromsgrove responded by tightening right up and scoring a third and final try to clinch the win.

A good wake up call to the boys in black and red who managed to draw the next 2 games – and a great benchmark for the level of aggression and physicality the boys need to show in the contact area.

Match 1 - Walsall 3 - Moseley 1

Although the score line might suggest otherwise this was a very closely fought match. Walsall got off to a very good start with an early try. Moseley rallied from this superbly and gave no quarter with scrums being won against the head, great work at the line out and some all round excellent tackling, rucking and mauling, they were unlucky not to see some fine work from Ollie and Matthew not result in an equalising try. The second half started and Moseley continued where they had left off with the hard work finally resulting in a much deserved equalising try from Ollie. It looked now that Moseley could snatch a winner as again Matthew and Ollie went close and some great driving runs from Sam, Chloe, Peter and Sam Croft all put the Walsall line under immense pressure. But it was not to be as Walsall capitalised on some inexperience in the Moseley team scoring an excellent breakaway try to go 2-1 up and then score a third to seal the win.

The whole team played fantastically, worked hard for each other and made everyone really proud even if they did not quite manage the win.

Match 2 - Walsall 1 - Moseley 1

Another very well contested match. Walsall again started well, scoring an early try from one of their sprinters. Moseley were however, very quickly back in the game and every time our faster boys - George and Archie had hands on the ball it looked like a try would come. The rucking and mauling was fairly even, but Moseley was starting to show an advantage in the scrum and line out with Danny C winning just about every ball that was thrown in. As our distribution began to improve this increasingly opened up opportunities for Brandon and our back line to run at the Walsall line, sadly we missed a number of chances to work a 2/3 man overlap, but the equaliser did at last come with Archie touching down in the corner. This was now one way traffic and Walsall did well to keep Moseley out at the end and earn the draw.

Match 3 - Walsall 2 - Moseley 2

A tale of two halves with this final match, as over the course of the match we managed to get everyone who had taken part in the previous two games on over the course of this one - so numerous substitutions. Again Walsall had the better start, their flyer managing to touch down twice to nil, but once again we were strong in our rucks, scrums and line outs and were to a man tackling like demons. This hard work looked like it would pay off but the Walsall defence held firm. The team sensed that it would however eventually crack and so it was in the second half Moseley started to get the upper hand with two scores to equalise and several chances that just fell a yard too short to win the game.

We would like to say a big thank you to all players and parents who turned out on such a dismal day, although the weather got better as the morning went on.