Junior Results - Season 2007/8

Mansfield U19’s NLD Champions 2007

The Colts entertained local rivals Paviors in the NLD cup final at Eakring Road on Sunday winning an extremely tight game 16-13.

It was, however, Paviors who started the game the stronger of the two sides racing to a 10-0 lead 20 minutes into the first half thanks to an early penalty and converted try, the result of excellent driving play from their forwards.

Mansfield did have their chances and only poor decision making and silly handling errors prevented them from closing the gap.

Despite the early setback, Mansfield never gave up hope and soon brought the game back to 10-6 thanks to two penalties from the boot of fly half Jonno Williams.

With half time beckoning it looked certain Paviors would go into the break with a four point lead.

But Mansfield rallied once more, taking procession deep into Paviors territory.

Mansfield enjoyed a period of sustained pressure on the Paviors line and were rewarded just before half time when No 8 Danny Spencer was driven over to give Mansfield a slender 11-10 half time lead.

It was certainly Mansfield who started the second period the stronger and were in control straight from the re-start.

Excellent chasing of the kick off by the back row of Calladine, Spencer and Donaldson gave Mansfield possession.

A series of drives took play deep into Paviors territory with Spencer eventually emerging with the ball to run in unopposed from 25m to score his second try of the game and make the score 16-10.

Paviors responded immediately taking play straight back to Mansfield and were rewarded when their fly half bisected the posts with an immaculate 30 metre drop goal to close the gap to three points.

From that point on it was Mansfield who dominated both possession and territory, camping out for long periods on the Paviors line but failing to convert their dominance into points.

Time after time the outstanding Mansfield forwards battered the Paviors line only to fall short on every drive thanks to a superb defensive line or their own errors letting them down.

Paviors did manage to briefly relieve the pressure and were awarded a line out deep in Mansfield territory with only eight minutes to go, driving over the line only for the ball to be held up.

This was the end of the Paviors challenge and the rest of the game was played out deep in the Paviors half with Mansfield easily repelling the opposition attempts to run the ball out from deep.

When the final whistle eventually came the large Eakring Road erupted in relief to celebrate a famous Mansfield victory, as for the Colts, this was the end of the three years of heartache after successive semi-final and final defeats.

 

Mansfield U16’s NLD Champions 2007

Mansfield U16’s secured the N.L.D. Cup for the second consecutive year with a resounding 41-10 victory against local rivals Paviors.

On a bright and dry Sunday afternoon Mansfield, playing up the slope, were put under pressure from the kick-off but, after early defending they soon started to put their game together.  On five minutes a sweeping move from one side of the pitch to the other found Jordan Bettridge, who powered over to give the blue and whites a 5-0 lead.

This was extended shortly afterwards, when the forwards secured ball at a line out before releasing the backs to create an overlap allowing Bettridge to score a second in the corner.  An excellent conversion from out wide by Ross Elms increased Mansfield’s lead to 12-0.

Mansfield continued to press and the forwards started to dominate the bigger opposition scoring two tries by securing possession at line outs and driving over.  Ellis Keegan got the vital touch on the first with Elms converting and the second had many hands getting the downward pressure to give Mansfield a 24-0 lead.

Paviors enjoyed a period of pressure and a delicate chip over the defence by Will Crossley allowed Bradley Penniecooke to collect and drive over to reduce the deficit to 24-5.  The Blue and Whites again upped their game putting the Paviors on the back foot and forcing them to make mistakes.  The Mansfield forwards secured possession from a resulting scrum and the ball was quickly played out to Elms who saw a gap and went over near the posts.  He converted the try to give Mansfield a 31-5 lead at half time.

Mansfield started the second period as they had finished the first putting Paviors under pressure and from a scrum in the opposition half of the field the ball was played swiftly through the hands to Jonathan Cordin who beat the defence to go over in the corner.

The lead was extended to 41-5 with the best try of the game with the ball passing through the hands from one side of the pitch to the other and back again before Ryan Hough chose a great line to out sprint the defence and secure the points.  Mansfield continued to dominate possession and territory until with 10 minutes to go Paviors exerted a period of pressure of their own in the Mansfield 22; with Tim Walton finishing a forwards move in the corner to give a score of 41-10.  Mansfield played the final minutes in the opposition half securing a thoroughly deserved victory with an excellent display of rugby from the whole team