U15 Sharks - Victory in the Big Kahuna

Sunday in the Suffolk Plate saw an incredible away victory (Ipswich 20 v U15 Sharks 24) by an outnumbered Southwold U15 Sharks!

The background to the BIG KAHUNA was that the Sharks have had a rash of injuries. That meant that, even including the walking wounded, the U15 Sharks could field only 14 players at the start of the match vs the 15 (plus substitutes of Ipswich). Sadly, by half time the U15 Sharks were down to 13 and by the end of the match to 12 players against a full strength Ipswich.

However, the members of this U15 Sharks squad have long since learned that the true value of any victory relies on the quality and worth of the opposition. In that respect, the Ipswich U15s proved themselves to be absolutely top-drawer opponents and a huge test. The Ipswich team is stuffed full of talented players who displayed impressive fire, heart and skills right up until the final whistle. They should be in no doubt that they earned the respect of all those watching and, most especially, the respect of the U15 Sharks with the terrific rugby they played.

In the end, both sides scored four tries, with the U15 Sharks having converted two of their tries and Ipswich none. Issue is that none of that can ever catch the intensity of this closely fought contest!

Any match report has to start with the fact that Ipswich took the lead. Daniel Hamilton-McGinty - not for the first time - had other ideas and took matters into his own hands, levelling the score with a great try in his trademark barnstorming fashion. Similarly, any such report would have to praise at length Sam Button’s absolutely scintillating flying try that very soon followed. The U15 Sharks were to hold the lead right to the end after that, despite everything Ipswich could throw at them.

In a match report along those lines though, special mention would also, of course, have to be made of Sam Taylor’s and Angus Kinsella’s hugely impressive performances - their two tries were terrific and came at crucially important times. Problem then would be that we would need to balance that by including Conor Jones’ astonishingly heroic defence and the fact that his two conversions were the only difference between the sides.

Once we mention heroics though, we would definitely have to mention Bobby Wickham who played despite and through his injury and made an enormous contribution. Same problem when mentioning defence - no match report would be complete without mentioning Jack Strachan’s and Harvey Wallis’s try saving tackles and that is before we even get to the twin rocks of Felix Trash and Rory Lacey upon whom numerous Ipswich attacks foundered.

The issue then, as everybody who has ever played rugby knows, is that FORWARDS WIN MATCHES AND THE BACKS DECIDE BY HOW MUCH! So the immense efforts, spirit and heart shown by Alex Hood, Fraser Warburton and Will Robinson would need to be written about at length. If that were to happen, a whole chapter would then be needed on the exemplary Taz Smith, the U15 Sharks captain, who brilliantly led both his forwards and his side to victory.

In short this was a team performance by the U15 Sharks that exemplified the fact that Southwold is indeed ‘the little club with the big heart’.

Although unfortunately not on the pitch on Sunday, the huge contribution made (both last season and this) to that memorable victory by other members of the U15 Sharks squad also needs to be recognised. This includes Dieter Horth, Ollie Hills, Callum Henderson, Luke Hazzard, Toby Sayer, Mitchell Patching, Will Griffiths and Thibault Clack amongst others. These players all helped lay the foundation for this victory, it is your victory too! We hope and need to see you all back turning out in Southwold Sharks colours again very soon!

Finally, what has been and has to keep being learnt is that in rugby self discipline and respect for your opponents is all important. As the wonderfully named Knute Rockne said “One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it”. A key and much respected U15 Sharks player expressed admirably similar sentiments to that recently - this squad will continue to do well if it lives up to the example he and the captain set Sunday.