chickenfeet

It was a long day. My U16 boys played their first game of the season at Crusaders. We had more than thirty boys dressed so managing the substitution flow was quite a challenge. I managed to get everybody some playing time while starting with my strongest XV and finishing up with my best XV, bar a couple of injuries. It was a good game. Both sides played good clean rugby and there were some decent skills on display. We ended up winning 18-10. The only sour note was, once again, an injury. One of my better backs went to hospital with a suspected dislocated shoulder.

Then it was off to Fletchers for the Churchill Cup. England Saxons saw off Ireland 'A' 34-12 in a pretty entertaining game. The England backs threw the ball around and created some good scoring opportunities. The goal kicking of Ryan Lamb (2/8) was woeful though so I don't see the otherwise capable fly-half challenging for a place in the England first team. Nick Abendanon was outstanding at fullback.

cc2, originally uploaded by jgilks@rogers.com.

Canada vs Argentina 'A' was a less satisfactory affair. There were far too many handling errors and a lot of negative play. For most of the game Argentina looked pretty comfortable and it was only after Fleck replaced Fairhurst at scrum half that canada began to spark and put Argentina under real pressure. It really shows the problems of Canadian rugby. The overseas professionals were not available (IRB fails again) and, partly as a result, we were unable to beat what was effectively a third string Argentine team.