A clear, sunny sky provided perfect playing conditions for WNRFC u13s first home match of the season against Holt RFC.
A Holt kick-off was followed by sustained pressure in West’s half, the kick was collected by Ben Taylor-Bunting who ran the ball back to halfway before being stopped.
West won the resulting ruck, spun the ball wide and strong running from Harry Martyn provided West’s first try.
Again, West met Holt’s pressure at the re-start with strong tackling particularly from the ever-reliable Charlie Cooper.
With a West put-in at the scrum the backs were hitting their stride when the ball found Jack Godfrey-Leggett who drove into Holt’s 22 and then offloaded in the tackle to Ethan Kilian.
Another West scrum was followed by Godfrey-Leggett’s first try of the game.
A penalty against West soon after the restart posed a threat to West, until some excellent work from Archie Thomson dispossessing the Holt ball carrier, returned the ball to West who unleashed their backline again culminating in a darting run from Taylor-Bunting over the line.
West’s response to the next kick off brought the ball back to the half-way line, from where Godfrey-Leggett ran from his own half outpacing the opposition to score a well-earned second try.
Another re-start saw an excellent run from Charlie Cook split open the Holt defence and from the resulting ruck, Harry Carman powered over the whitewash.
Undeterred by West’s mounting score-line Holt won a scrum against the head and the penalty that followed enabled them to unleash their own back line on a rare foray into West’s 22.
However, their attack was stopped in its tracks by a superb Ruairi Fitzgerald tackle and with West’s forwards quicker off the mark to the breakdown, Holt were penalised for holding on.
Another Godfrey-Leggett try ensued, with confident running from his own half down the left wing.
Holt showed dogged resistance and continued their attacks, though the West pack were out-muscling their opposition at the breakdown and, it was at the third Holt ruck in a row, where the West forwards ferociously counter-rucked, enabling Freddie Farr to break away powerfully and score.
A Holt penalty saw them on the attack from their own half, but their runner was tackled by Cooper and then immediately pounced upon by Cook work the ball back to West to provide Killian with an opportunity to speed down the wing outstripping the defence.
The next West attack saw a fantastic one-handed offload in the tackle by Finley Smith-Parry to release Martyn who stretched the Holt defence but was ultimately brought down and from the ensuing ruck, Holt attacked and broke West’s line but were stopped by an excellent tackle from William Lloyd.
The second half began with a re-invigorated Holt who probed at the West defensive line and blunted the counter-attacks made by Lincoln Flannigan-Auker and Johnny Ringwood.
Last-ditch tackles by Taylor-Bunting and then Fitzgerald were not quite enough to stop Holt from going in at the corner.
The contest remained even for a brief period with attacks made by both sides until a superlative chop tackle from Cooper felled the Holt runner; West winning the resulting ruck with the ball going wide to Taylor-Bunting who fooled the drifting defence by cutting back inside to score again.
Holt’s kick-off was met by a rampaging run from Dexter Anderson who took the West attack deep into Holt’s half and from the ensuing series of rucks the backs again showed their quality handling, releasing Kilian to score his second.
The re-start saw West returning to Holt’s half and a crash ball taken at pace saw Godfrey-Leggett cut through the opposition and score.
West’s desire not to drop off the pace as the game came to a close, epitomised by a number of powerful attacking runs made by Theo Hobbs and Flynn Jackson-Hopps, created further scoring opportunities for Taylor-Bunting, Martyn and Godfrey-Leggett.
Cook finished off the scoring with a pick-up from the base of an attacking scrum followed by a slashing run to the try line.
Forward of the match: Charlie Cook, Back of the match: Ethan Kilian and Coaches player of the match: Ruairi Fitzgerald; Opoosition player of the match: Ben Taylor-Bunting.
