Minehead win and Weston lose theirs

A victory can hide a multitude of faults, in defeat the under 11’s have been presented with a great learning opportunity.
Weston U11’s were well beaten by a determined Minehead side that warmed up as though they meant business and rocked every Weston players confidence with a powerful start to the match too. Weston never recovered and the result never looked beyond doubt from the minute Minehead ran over for the opening try after 3 minutes. Two more were scored in the opening 15 minutes and a 4th in the last move. Weston only got beyond halfway from the restarts but kept kicking the ball straight down the middle to ever grateful Minehead who ran the ball back with interest. It was only thanks to some committed defence where Joel Briffitt really impressed that prevented a much greater half-time deficit.
Weston emerged a lot more determined after Jamie Greatorex provided a great half-time team talk and Tom Burge provided hope for a revival when he seized on a dropped line out ball to muscle over for a try, from the restart Alfie Calcutt made an amazing run to score another.
Minehead returned to making use of their big and powerful players to run the ball straight and hard at the Weston line where new players Morgan Taylor, Jack Rollings and Isaac Bliss stood shoulder to shoulder with some of Weston’s more established players as the tackle and try count mounted.
Dylan Way provided a brief moment of joy from a short penalty after a penalty was awarded for not throwing the ball in straight. This was a fault both teams repeatedly committed and on this occasion appeared deliberate with Minehead camped on their try line at that time, throwing the ball straight to the front of the line out.
Minehead had the final say with a try making the score 45-15.
This performance was not in the same vein as the two matches which led to the team winning. Weston scrummaged well but didn’t use their backs at all well to exploit the spaces. At the breakdown Weston failed to turn and present the ball in the maul allowing Minehead to wrestle with them for it which often resulted in a turnover or a scrum to Minehead. In the ruck not enough players were determined to protect the ball and were too focussed on getting their own hands on it, leaving the scrum half under great pressure. Meanwhile supporting players were simply drawn ever closer, denying themselves the space they needed to run forwards and pass cleanly to one another.
I think the coaches and supporters feel these are only small improvements to be made on what is a sound base, but they may yield significant results if the desire of the players is there to improve.