Wisbech unnder-15s far from disgraced during home friendly defeat to Holt

Under-15 rugby players from Wisbech did the club proud despite tasting defeat to Holt in a much-anticipated return game.

After coming up against two of the toughest teams in Cambridgeshire in recent weeks, Wisbech knew that Holt would once again prove formidable opposition themselves after a thrilling 17-12 loss earlier in the season.

Wisbech turned up sharp and after an intense warm-up were on fire for the first 20 minutes of the game, total domination in every aspect of the game, hard running, huge tackling, scrums, and lineouts all dominant, slick handling and deservedly ran in the first try after five minutes of play.

Wisbech did not let up and Holt had no answers at all to any of the pressure heaped upon them.

On the 20-minute mark and, against the run of play, a wayward kick was caught and ran back in for Holt's first score of the day to make the scores 7-7.

This seemed to knock the wind out of the boys’ sails and Holt quickly scored again after some great handling straight down the centre and scored under the posts.

Immediately after the kick-off, a missed tackle and they scored again down the wing.

Wisbech had to dig deep and rallied once more to gain the ascendancy.

They once again began to assume some control after some great forward rucking from a lineout set play.

Wisbech were given a penalty for Holt holding on the ground and a long kick to Holt's five-metre line, resulting in another lineout and a driving maul which was brought down by Holt, only for the referee to give the penalty the wrong way.

The visitors were able to clear their line and then run in a try from the lineout to make it 7-22 at half-time.

The second half kicked off and Wisbech once again showed some good heart, but individual errors started to creep in.

Some wayward passing, balls left loose at ruck time and some inconsistent refereeing decisions started to take their toll on the game and the team could not get a foothold in the game.

That being said, all this is fixable and as always the team spirit was unbreakable, which was most pleasing for the coaches to see. #Wisbech kept with the game plan and tried to get things working, only for the windy conditions to hamper anything they tried.

Holt ran out 7-32 victors at the final whistle but this did not feel like a loss.

This was a very winnable game, but Holt ran away with it on the scoreboard.

Holt were overly complimentary regarding the team's efforts, team ethics and attitudes. The team can be proud and walk away with their heads held high.

The Wisbech coaches don’t normally single out players but this week felt the need to congratulate Harry Swan on never dropping his head after some tough decisions going against him.

Swan's dominant running and tight play were excellent, while Josh Willard had his best game of the season moving from wing to second-row.

Willard is proving that he is a warrior and Harrison Gadd was selected as man-of-the-match by the opposition.

Unfortunately, Haverhill were unable to fulfil the U7-U12/13 fixtures on Sunday at home.

The teams trained ahead of their away matches to Ely on Sunday.