May have been a scratch side but they oozed talent...
Cobham U21s win 2011/12 Campaign Opener Against Local Rivals
Saturday 27th August 2011
Esher RFC U21s: 24 v Cobham RFC U21s: 29
Cobham U21’s started off the 2011/12 Surrey Competition in the best possible way by beating a strong Esher Academy side, who even at this early stage were already into their third match of the season. Despite many players being unavailable, Cobham were still able to field a very strong squad of 21 players, who on paper were strong individually but the test was always going to be as to how quickly this squad would gel without the benefit of a squad training session or team run through.
To prepare an early meet time was set, two hours prior to KO, in order for the experienced coaching team to get to work with the players. Within this time the wealth of coaching experience combined with the talent that this squad of players undoubtedly has, combined and come 2pm was as ready as they could be to face Esher.
With regards to the actual detail of the match... it is limited in this report, due to the writer being stuck on the M4 for the entire time. However feedback received was that Cobham’s defence, hustle, energy, commitment and skills outshone our opponents and perhaps the final score line could have been greater had the side been together longer and small errors cancelled out. But that’s being too critical and from this performance there are only positives to be taken away from it and to build on for our next too pool games over the Christmas holiday’s.
This season's U21 captain, Josh Brown, was naturally very pleased with the way the match went, and I quote "I am absolutely delighted with the first win of the campaign. We came out all guns blazing and really caused some carnage out on the field. First job done... well done".
The full squad involved in this match was as follows:
Jack Westmoreland-Burns
Matt Rigby
Henry Swindell
Charlie Mortimer
Pete Saunders
Conor Jones
Drew Dewitz
Harry Cairns
Richard Philip
Grant Davis
Joe Goddard
Peter McCallum
Richard Trepant
Max Rowson
Josh Brown (c)
Ross Ketelbey
Murray Shepherd
Cain Stennett
Sam Deucher
Rob Davis
Rhodri Needham
Next U21 fixtures
Saturday 24th December 2011: Cobham v Effingham & Leatherhead
Thursday 29th December 2011: Cobham v Sutton & Epsom
