13th December saw the U12 squad travel over to Keyworth, for a three way fixture including Coalville. Both these teams were unknown to us, so having beaten all the teams local to us, this was a journey into the unknown.

The first team took the pitch against Coalville, who had some sizeable players and looked up for a battle. Despite having a lot of possession, Coalville struggled to break through the defence and when they did Mikey "the gorrilla" Gorrill had a superb game at fullback.

We soon took control with the forwards in charge of the breakdown, with some superb rucking and use of quick ball by the ever improving back line, soon left Coalville not knowing where the next wave of attack was coming from and we seemed to make ground at will. (Not Will Sturgess)

The final score was 6-0 with the tries scored by the forwards and backs.

The Development team then took the field against Keyworth, who had offered to put their U11's against us. I obviously refused as the Dev have proved to be a match for any team and if pitched against an U11 team, ambulances would have been needed for them methinks!

It was a tight fought match with Keyworth taking an early lead, after we dropped of a few tackles and some strong running from them. That was to be their last score however and the match moved from end to end, without the line of either team being troubled, defences were on top and then from nowhere a Mansfield try. Excellent forward work saw the ball end up with "Tank," Captain for the day, who smashed his way over, one one at half time.

To their credit the Devs seemed disappointed at half time and a few words were all that were needed to see them retake the field possessed by the desire to perform.

If became a tense affair and the ref called "last play" all to soon. It was our scrum, which was hooked back by big H, Jed passed to Tank who became an unstoppable force, smashing players out of the way, before touching down in the corner. Everyone looked at the ref....... "TRY GIVEN." The crowd went wild, what a great finish and nothing less than our effort and performance deserved.

I can only liken that try to Japan scoring against South Africa in the World Cup. Replace the name of Japan's Karne Hesketh for Nathan Hind and your about there for how much the try meant to us.

A great performance, if we could only get the Dev back line to training, I'm sure we would see some real fireworks.

Final scores
Mansfield 1st 6 - 0 Coalville
Mansfield Dev 2 - 1 Keyworth

A very professional performance by both teams which only hinted at the heights this squad is capable of. Bring on 2016.

Mansfield Rugby Club

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