Combative display at Cleve

The morning saw our squad of 24 take on some challenging matches against Cleve RFC away. But, as with everything so far in a season where our players are having a lot of new rules thrown at them, they embraced and dealt admirably with everything thrown at them. We split into two teams of 12 playing two twenty minute 10-a-side matches on full size pitches. So both our teams got to play against the two teams put out by Cleve.

On the pitch overseen by Richard and Marcus, the standard of play by the St Brendans squad was difficult to fault. They were defensively excellent, putting in some great tackles against quite a few bigger players. And they definitely matched (and probably exceeded) a very physical Cleve squad. They were relentless in their rucking and mauling and recycling of the ball and (I don't want to admit this) quite intelligent in their kicking. And they were impressive in breaking through Cleve's line on numerous occasions, but supporting each other throughout, and most importantly working as a team.

Marcus