Holt Rugby Club Under 16s: Holt v Wymondham. First home game of the season.

Holt u16s. Sponsored by James Gray Haulage. Smart bunch.

At last a home fixture and a perfect opportunity to show off the new shirts and sponsor. We told the boys to stick their chests out for the pic. They tried.

A good crowd were watching this fixture against Wymondham, a team with some very tall and strong looking players but Holt were more than up to the challenge and put on a real show for everyone. The game was split into x4 quarters as had been the case in the last couple of fixtures. This gave the coaches of both sides the opportunity to try a few variations out throughout the fixture.

Wymondham were very strong and quite dominant in certain areas, ie the line-out and scrum but Holt forwards dug in deep to contest every ball and give their backs the sort of ball that offers opportunities around the pitch. The first 15 minutes saw Holt score x2 tries with no reply. One by Simmo, sniping around the blind side and the second by Callum after some great work in the midfield. Holt 10 - Wymondham 0

The second quarter saw probably the best try of the game after Ally chipped the defence with Shed and Ally running through the static line and although Shed was possibly tackled but definitely went A over B Ally just managed to gather the ball and score under the posts. Great inventive play. Callum added another after Wymondham looked like they were going to cross the Holt line, Titus made the break and Callum took a short ball and broke away. The Wymondham pressure was rewarded by a driven over try after a 7metre penalty. Callum finished the quarter with another streaking run down the left wing. Holt 31 - Wymondham 5

The third quarter saw more of the same with Holt looking to restrict the visitors forwards and get the ball to the backs to attack. Some notable work by Jack stealing as many balls as he could from tackles players. Robin and Ollie R working tirelessly in the second row. Ollie and Alexander putting up Dean really well in the line-out, even if he was about two foot shorter than the opposition jumper. Sam Crafer making a welcome return and making some key tackles, Caz supporting well and showing good hands and stepping, George leading the troops, Harrison, Jenks and Jack combining well. Matti, Ally, Simmo and Callum with Titus looking like a midfield to really be reckoned with. Tries in this quarter by Simmo, who went through the entire defence to score and then some brilliant last ditch defending on the line saw the secured ball spun wide and out to Alex Storey to score in the corner. Holt 43 - Wymondham 5

The final quarter saw a few more shifts around of personnel with certain instructions to a number of players to try things out, which is why fixtures like these are more about than the score. Callum scored another beauty taking a quick pass from Caz to score in the corner. Callum, the try machine added yet another to his tally getting away up the wing with devastating pace. Wymondham, to their credit did not give up and were rewarded with a converted try after one of their players seemed to evade several tacklers.

Some very positive play with certain areas working very well. Other areas clearly need to be worked on which only to be expected at this stage of the season. Overall a great performance and more importantly a really committed performance across the board. We're not choosing man of the match and turd of the week yet but all the Holt players could have won the MoM and it would be harsh to award the turd to anyone this week. So guess who got the shirts...

Below is a selection of pics taken by Amelia Ghanbouri. The official snapper of the Holt u16s.