Sunday 21st saw us take in our second away trip of the season; this time over to the Old Deer Park in Richmond to meet London Welsh. There were 15 boys who made the trip over, with Hackney Bulls also bringing a team down. Welsh had around 30.

We were training on the first team pitch and split into a number of drills, ranging from fitness to passing to tacking and a rucking drill.
The final hour was dedicated to matches. The first was against the London Welsh ‘A’ side. This was the strongest team I’ve seen us come up against so far this season so was a good test for us. Whilst we lost the game 3-1, we played well and lost to ‘break away’ tries scored. We have some pacey players in our side and all we needed to do here was be more prepared and committed to make tackles and to get the ball out.

Game 2; this time against Welsh ‘B’s and a much improved performance from the Vandals!
Committed tackling, some incredible rolling mauls (although I’d clearly rather just the forwards were in there as opposed to the whole
team! :-) and some great trys from fast runs out of scrums and breakdowns. A very credible 3-2 defeat. Given the small pitches and short timed games, I think if the game had gone on, we would have scored more. It also allowed the coaching team to highlight a number of areas to focus on in upcoming training sessions.

All in all a great day and following back-to-back wins against Reading and Farnborough in recent weeks, this demonstrated to me that we have a strong squad of players and are well positioned when compared against other local clubs. London Welsh are definitely the strongest side we have faced so far this season, so was a good experience and well done to all the boys.

See you on Sunday (28th) for training at Vandals.

RH