Early Years and Juniors
Under 11 A vs Austin Friars
The Under 11 A team produced their best performance in years in a hard-fought, windswept game against an excellent Austin Friars team, who showed no signs of sluggishness from their journey by scoring directly from the kick-off.
NSB produced some fantastic tackling and were tenacious in the ruck, with William P and Josh A combining well to steal the ball repeatedly at the breakdown. Austin Friars fought back and, after ten phases, broke through the tiring NSB defence to make it 2-0. Superb running from Jock E and Oscar G, both breaking many tackles, led to NSB regaining front-foot advantage and Elliot scored a breakaway try to make it 2-1. Max L, imperious in the scrum all afternoon, won another against the head and from the resulting attacking move, Marni E-B crashed over to level the scores. The end-to-end game swung back the other way though, with Austin Friars scoring a third before half-time to take the advantage into the break. NSB knew they were in the game however and, with the half-back pairing leading the way – Andrews barking orders to his team and Hamish A’s fantastic all-round game leading to him scoring the third try within minutes of the kick-off.
NSB’s restarts were much improved, and Jack P, Thomas N and Oliver G were excellent at chasing kicks, tackling the man and winning back the advantage. NSB spent the remainder of the half camped in opposition territory, with only the weather contributing to their lack of further scores as the rain set in. It looked like disaster had struck as Friars scored another breakaway try with minutes left, taking the lead against the run of play. However, the skill and attitude of the NSB boys was overwhelming, and the result never looked in doubt despite time ticking away. Last play was called as NSB stepped up their rush defence, Marni stripping the opposition fly-half to win the ball and touch down the equalising try, making the final score 4-4.