Last Sunday saw the Alton Under 16’s take on Portsmouth at Anstey Park.

A physical encounter against Portsmouth.

This provided another game where we could try players out in several positions and experiment with different combinations as we work toward our next League game away to Trojans on the 10th of December.
This was a physical encounter which is what we come to expect when playing Portsmouth. During the first half lots of good work was undone by insufficient players committing to the breakdown which resulted in the Alton team getting pinged for holding on after the tackle. Despite the loss of territory they still managed to score and convert three tries in the first half whilst preventing Portsmouth from scoring any points even though they get within metres of the try line on several occasions.

The second half saw Alton exert more pressure as a result of them getting to the breakdown in numbers and securing quicker ball for the backs to exploit the space available to them. This improved work rate lead to them scoring a further 4 converted tries with the backs starting to resemble the unit that shone at the end of last season. The defensive display also improved in the second half with some great ripping to steal Portsmouth ball when they were in our 22 on several occasions.

Another good team display as we now look forward to playing Reading Abbey on Sunday at Anstey.