Alton Under 16’s visit Trojans for their next league fixture.

A strong performance despite the weather.

Thankfully Trojans had the foresight to secure the rugby pitches of King Edwards School for this league match early in the week. If they had not then the game would have been called off as the pitches at the club were out of action come Sunday morning.

The weather was truly atrocious with squally sleety showers blown in on a strong wind. The first half saw the Alton team play into the wind and it was imperative that they kept things tight during the opening exchanges to make sure that they did not give Trojans any momentum. It was to their credit that they actually dominated possession if not territory in the opening exchanges which was no surprise given the conditions. As the game settled it was Alton who started to threaten the opening score and it was very much deserved when the openside flanker stormed over to score the first try. Having opened the scoring it was frustrating that shortly after they conceded a soft penalty in front of the post which was duly knocked over to cut the deficit. Alton responded positively and were soon back inside the Trojans 22 and putting the homeside under significant pressure. The homeside kept infringing and conceding penalties as a result of the pressure and eventually the flyhalf went over to extend the lead to 7 points. Again Trojans came back after conceding a try to secure another penalty which they duly converted. The first half ended with Alton 10 6 up which was a real achievement in the conditions.
It soon became apparent at the start of the second half how good the Alton display was in the first 35 minutes as they set up camp in the opposition half. Trojans could only just keep kicking the ball down field in attempt to relieve the Alton pressure and it was much to their credit that they kept themselves in the game during the first 15 minutes, however, as soon as the replacement fly half went over and duly took the 2 additional points there was only going to be one winner. The Alton side sensed that they could score more tries and prevent Trojans from securing a losing bonus point and the Alton full back and blindside winger each scoring a couple of very good tries to make the final score 41 6.
Next up Winchester in the league in January.