After what has sometimes felt like a relentless grind of league and cup matches, Sevenoaks Academy enjoyed a day in the sun as they travelled to Hertford for a friendly double-header.
The 53-seater was booked for 8am - the first challenge of the day! The boys passed with flying colours and that set the tone really.
Full of buzz and energy from the moment they got off the coach at Hertford, the young Oaks ripped into the early stages of the game in much the same way as they had attacked the warm-up.
Improved defence has been a real area of work for Oaks since the defeats to Canterbury and Blackheath. The Oaks spacings were spot on, their speed to fold and reload exceptional. Hertford carried hard and with purpose in the early going but the visitors' defence quickly got on top in the collisions, forcing a penalty.
Oaks went straight to their lineout drive and to his credit, the Hertford referee allowed Oaks to use this weapon much more than recent men-in-the-middle have done. Hertford infringed and Oaks drove the ball even deeper into the home 22 and had a 2nd crack of the whip. This time they were too close to repel, with hooker Dom Stangroome dotting down after the pack had driven Hertford over the line. 0-5.
After a reasonable exit from the kickoff, Oaks defended powerfully once again to win another turnover. They made ground up the left-hand side, before prop Gregor Pauling found fly half Louis Bouverie with a beautiful zip pass out the back off 9. Bouverie did the rest, stepping inside and then out again to split the Hertford defence and go in under the posts. Zac Shirtcliff added the extras and Oaks found themselves two scores up.
Hertford had the better of the rest of the 1st half, as Oaks errors in the carry coughed up field position. Fortunately, the Oaks defence was once again steadfast and their try line was not breached. 0-12 at half time.
Oaks scored so early in the 2nd half that poor Harvey Galloway - now filming after an excellent 1st half at 9 - hadn't even turned the camera on yet! Captain Will Murphy went in from close range after Oaks broke through straight from the kick-off to make it 0-17. Very shortly after this, Oaks scored again as centre Raphi Simmonds-Dance got on the end of a lovely grubber kick from Shirtcliff after the latter scythed through the home defence off a scrum strike.
The visitors spent the remainder of the game defending as their discipline deserted them, with dominant tackles repeatedly being undermined by cheap penalties for offside and not rolling away. Oaks would have the final say, however. Yet another solid defensive set yielded a turnover in midfield as flanker Frank Kitchen ripped the ball from Hertford before setting off down field. The ruck ball was rapid and was worked wide to fullback Luca Crowcroft who stepped inside to break the line and go 40m up into Hertford territory. Two phases later, flanker Elliot Peters went over on the left to finish off Oak's best move of the day.
Final score 0-27.
This was an impressive display from Sevenoaks. Incremental improvement in performance has been the message since Christmas and on this day, it certainly felt like progress had been made in all areas! More importantly, there was a genuine sense of enjoyment in everything the players did, from getting onto the coach at the Paddock to climbing off of it again at the end of the day.
Next weekend sees the Academy 1s in Kent League action at home vs Cranbrook.
Squad list: Gregor Pauling, Dom Stangroome, Oli Langley, Tom Moseley, James Kerton, Barnaby Thomas, Elliot Peters, Will Murphy (C), Harvey Galloway, Louis Bouverie, Oli May, Ruben Le Roux, Zac Shirtcliff, Juan Barnard, Luca Crowcroft
Subs: Drew Mercer, Henry Thompson, Frank Kitchen, Mac Leason, Raphi Simmonds-Dance, Ollie Ebsworth