On a scorching sunny October day more suited to being on the beach than on a rugby field, we were at Canvey Island Rugby Club for the first round of the Essex U14s Waterfall Cup. The Chelmsford Thunder team played well but they were met by a passionate and motivated Canvey team. The end result didn’t correctly reflect the effort and rugby played by the Chelmsford U14s.

The Chelmsford Thunder team started well, taking the ball from the kick-off and retaining possession through a number of phases but each wave was met by strong and firm tackling and rucking from Canvey. When Canvey had possession, our own competitive rucking led to a number of balls being turned over but on repeated occasions, poor handling let us down. The Chelmsford Thunder team should be proud of their scrummaging work, winning all of their own ball when asked and taking three against the head. Both forwards and backs carried well in attack, although again some loose passing let us down and prevented us from ultimately crossing the whitewash. We have some further development needed in our positional play, especially in defence, as we failed to cover ground leading to opportunistic Canvey scores. Some players were also taking up new positions which through a combination of game awareness and communication also left us exposed, especially with the fullback and wingers failing to drop back to cover defensive kicks out from the Canvey twenty-two, turning good periods of pressure and potential Chelmsford tries into precarious back-peddling to our own line. Some key missed tackles further let Canvey through to the try line. Overall there was much positive play to build on and some key areas to work on. The final result was Canvey Island 38 - 0 Chelmsford Thunder.