In the curtain-raiser to the U17s game, the academy U16s played a friendly against Beccs in preparation for their final Kent League game against Westcombe Park next Sunday.
It has been a challenging season for the 16s, who are still yet to win a league match. However, their previous outing against league champions Dartford Valley represented a massive improvement in performance that the group were keen to build on.
Increased aggression and physicality have been the buzz words pretty much all season for this team. After a hugely physical performance against DV, the 16s started where they left off as they climbed into a well-drilled and athletic Beccs side from the off. Huge hits from the likes of captain Sam Pearl and centre Arthur Luboinski led to turnover ball that returning fly half George Rehbein was only too happy to zip wide where the ever-threatening winger Tiger Bussey made huge amounts of metres.
One 1st half try from Luboinski was complimented by three more in the 2nd half from Pearl, Rehbein and Bussey to cancel out the three tries scored by Beccs across the 70 minutes. Rehbein converted two from four to give Oaks a deserved 24-17 win.
Given that Oaks are in Kent Div 1 and Beccs in Kent Div 2, one could be forgiven for thinking that a victory should have been expected. After performances like their last two outings, perhaps this group of players will start to expect more of themselves as they look to push themselves into the top two or three sides in the county - where any Oaks academy team belongs!
Squad list : Dexter Williams, Luke Coll, Gurvan Ollivier, Tom Kerton, Ben Thomson, Yiannis Papadopoulos, Owen Abel, Sam Pearl, Toby Shrimpton, George Rehbein, Harry Mitchell, Arthur Luboinski, Callum Le Roux, Tiger Bussey, Hugo Schwemm
Subs: Zach Owen, Jack Pearson, Toby Kirkpatrick, Tait Andersen, Will Blackmore, Priam Van Asche, Preston Williams
MotM : Tom Kerton
MotM : Tom Kerton