The Team Works!!!!

Well, we turned up today with only 10 players against a team we've historically not done well against!

Right from the start every single Panther was totally focussed and committed........and Ashbourne were shaken by it: Eddie's high kick offs and Jacob's relentless chasing set the tone. Added to this the 'gruesome twosome' of Ty & Mitchell, trucking through the middle, and Matt & Ollie creating havoc with their running lines and we had the basis of what i think is our best performance in ages, if not ever!!!

The sheer effort of everyone today, I think, exhausted Ashbourne and they just couldn't keep up. Jasper is effectively a super-charged JCB in rugby boots and I would genuinely like to know how much distance was covered by Jacob and Tom P today, I was exhausted just watching them - an amazing work rate. Great to see Hugh getting stuck in and throwing out some great passes in midfield with Elliott chasing every lost cause that came his way.......yet another obstacle for an already tired Ashbourne to navigate.

We still need to bring our tackles down a little, but aside from that, the only areas that need work, we haven't really had chance to do so far this season - maul drives, striking in the scrum etc..........for the mums, thats kicking the ball back at scrum-time, not us teaching your cherubs dirty violence!!! At least that's next sundays training sorted!

The guys really were a sight to see today and all the coaches were masively proud of them all, to a person! Just think what we would have been like if we had our missing players with us too............Jess, Ben, Maddie, Logan, George and Tom C would've loved it today!

Well done everyone, and thanks to all mums and dads as always!

JC