Pontefract Under 11s were hosted by Huddersfield Laund Hill on Sunday the 10th. Laund Hill, a reasonably new mini set up were not fazed by Pontefract's 11s who are now entering their third season as a team. The game was one of 4 quarters, with each one, the standard of rugby both in attack and in defence getting better.
The first quarter saw Pontefract score 5 tries to Laund Hills 0. Pontefract in this quarter were very dominant in attacking play, strong and solid in their runs, rucks and mauls. The second quarter, Pontefract crossed over the line 5 times whilst preventing Laund Hill to cross again. This quarter, the structure the coaches are working on went a little off and Pontefract's players seemed to get white line fever as the rucks, Jackle was less on show but strong in their defence turning over a lot of ball and winning the ball in Jackle's. Third quarter was a lot more structured rugby and Pontefract's players were now doing as practiced in training, with pod work making the yards up the field, a few ball moves to open up the space and ball through hands to score. Pontefract scoring 3 try's and still managing to defend their own line and stopping Laund Hill from scoring. The fourth quarter was the hardest for Pontefract as this was Laund Hills strongest and with them turning over the ball several times and preventing Pontefract from scoring by defending their own try line was great to see. But Pontefract stuck to their structure, what they are and how they are wanting to play and eventually tired the opposite team down with strong rucks, strong mauls making the way up the field and quick hands helping Pontefract to score 4 towards the end of the quarter.
Massive well done to the Under 11s who had three debuting players who had never played union before but you wouldn't have known watching them. Harry Cooke, Ted Longdon both scoring a hat-trick of try's each and Billy Lankey taking Man of the Match award for Pontefract and Ellis Earley taking the Opposite Team Man of the Match.