Teddington v Ealing Trailfinders Academy won 56 – 8
The first round of the National Colts Cup pitched Ealing Trailfinders Academy against Teddington so we travelled to Bushy Park with high hopes of a good performance to get us underway.
The tone for the day was set from early on with some powerful running from No8 Marcus Lowe and winger Louis Walker and it was from one of these runs that Walker crossed for the first try of the day.
Poor discipline and inaccurate play allowed Antlers to gain field position and notch 3 points on the board. Trailfinders were woken by the score and there followed some fine expansive running rugby, forwards and backs interacted and we looked dangerous with every possession, tries followed for Lowe, Luk, Shahabi and a second for Walker before the half ended
The main focus at half time was about addressing our penalty count which was far too high for a team so dominant.
Despite the chat the second half started with 3 consecutive penalties pining us on our own line and leading to us conceding a try.
A return of focus allowed us to regain the upper hand and once again play some attractive rugby, forwards carried with purpose and some good decisions saw further tries from scrum half George Hawkins, Oscar Avis, a second for Yousef Shahabi and a hat trick for Walker. Kaine Wright finished up the scoring with the 10th try of the day.
Despite the score line, all agreed there is more to come from the squad, some improvement can be made on our decision making and accuracy and we cannot continue to give teams possession and territory from penalties.
Next week sees us travel to Aldershot to take on the Army Academy Development team and with a Sunday fixture to be confirmed, plenty of game time awaits
Lots to work on so can’t wait to see you at training!
Ealing Trailfinders Academy
Steadman, Shahabi, Clarke, Day, Walker, Luk, Hawkins, Lowe, Leonard-Fox, Avis, Beaumont, Wake, Nash, Hitchcock, Wells
Replacements
Czop, Riordan, Beavis, McCormack, Wright, Kozyritskiy, Enoch-Gill
Scorers
Tries – Walker 3, Shahabi 2, Lowe, Hawkins, Avis, Luk, Wright,
Conversions – Steadman, Luk, Hawkins
