It was yet another beautiful warm and sunny morning down at the New Wilderness for the U13’s fourth league match, with a tasty prospect of a local derby against Woodford. ‘Allegedly’ the psychological game started during the week when one of our boys, mentioning no names (but he usually plays as scrum half), told his school mates our usual flyhalf and centres weren’t playing.

For the first time in several matches the opposition didn’t look massively bigger than our boys and therefore all the spectators were expecting a good contest.

This was a must win match and one that Manor had to dominate from the start, unfortunately this didn’t happen. Woodford obviously saw this as a key match too and they started as the stronger side. From the off their pack was immense, their driving mauls were unstoppable, they were rucking us off the ball and there scrum was driving our forwards backwards. Every time Manor’s backs looked like breaking free penalty infringements, against Manor, meant the boys were back defending again. Finally just before halftime Manor crossed the line when Anthony picked up the ball from the base of the scrum, broke through several tackles and scored, and successfully converted by Ollie (Manor 7-0 Woodford).

Second half Manor looked the stronger side, the Manor scrum had stabilized and their backs were working well together. A great couple of strong runs from Sonny, on his debut match for Manor, saw him breaking tackles and opening gaps up in the Woodford defense. Jack K picked up the ball from the half way line and managed to have enough pace to get to the try line and score (Manor 12- 0 Woodford). Another run from Jack K and off load to Ollie saw Manor’s third unanswered try and conversion (Manor 19 – 0 Woodford). Second half ended with Manor once again conceding penalties and having to defend their line, after several attacks finally scored a well deserved try. Final score was Manor 19 – 5 Woodford.

Votes for the moments of the match:
- The referee tripping over Ollie A (hope your head is better now Ollie)
- Dave proving he is in touch with feminine side with his rather fetching pink polo and Santa hat

By my reckoning this crucial win moves Manor up to third in the league (on points difference) behind only Westcliff and Brentwood (Southend and Chelmsford have played one less game than us).

In the last three games Manor have score 103 points and conceded only 5, next league match against Upminster will be a much tougher match and the boys will need to play at their very best.

Gary Mountford