At the weekend ITV Orihuela RFC juniors took part in the 4th Murcia Rugby Federation rugby school tournament in Las Torres de Cotillas. With more than 150 boys and girls taking part in the tournament it showed that rugby is a thriving is this area of Spain, as well as the rest of it. Orihuela RFC went down with two teams U18’s and U16’s giving the new players from the club a chance to gain some much needed experience ready to replace the juniors going up to either the senior or cadetes side next season. With few of the experience players like Joel, Jorge, Adrian and Pablo in there to help the new players along like Jose, Adelin etc in the U18’s took on Squalos, UCAM A team and UCAM B team and even with a number of new players they came out victorious in all of their games. All being well we can keep attracting new players of this age to the club to give the depth needed to keep improving. Next up were the U16’s hoping that they could produce the same sort of results as the cadetes. In this team most of the players had only been training with Pedro for a few months and never played in a competitive match before, so it was a new experience and for Pedro to see how far they had come. They played two games, against Albacete and Totana, great to see some of the new teams getting a junior side together, well done Totana, and again Orihuela RFC came out with a 100% success. A special mention goes to the two girls playing for the team who played extremely well and got their first two tries for the club. The team was Yessi, Ana, Braulio, Roberto, Bassile, David, Nico and Cesar. Congratulations must go to everyone one who took part and organised this and more of these should be organised to help promote the sport and get more people involved in it. Also congratulations to Pedro and the ITV Orihuela RFC coaches and players for a great weekend and fantastic results, to prove that they are heading in the right direction, and the future is looking very bright for the club. I am now at Zoco Market on Sundays third row up from the road at the back of the market, so come on down there for all of your rugby branded clothing and playing gear, and anything you want to know about rugby in the area. ITV Orihuela played their last home game of the season for the cadetes and B team against Murcia XV on Saturday, as the first team had already finished their season. First up were the cadetes looking to finish on a high at home with one game to go. In true spirit of the game Orihuela RFC played eleven a-side to make things even. It started off quite even with both teams playing attacking rugby and some excellent defensive work by Murcia XV, but Jorge saw the gap in the defence to skip round the defence for the first try of the game, with Gregory getting the extras. With Murcia XV battling hard, the pressure was beginning to show with two more quick tries and Jorge getting his second of the match. Then you could say it became the Gregory show after good work by the players around him he was able before half time to capitalise on lose ball to get a hat-trick of tries as well as the conversions to go in at half time 40-0 up The relentless pressure continued in the second half with tries coming thick and fast and in the end 14 tries and 11 conversion were scored without reply bringing the final score 92-0 to ITV Orihuela RFC cadetes. All credit must go to the never say die attitude of the Murcia XV team, and congratulations to a job well done by Pedro, the coach, and the players. Next up was the B team against a very good and strong Murcia XV team with lots of experience, who decide the best ploy was not to let the home side get up a head of steam and kept them on the back foot from the off. They were not getting their own way as Orihuela RFC were dominate in the scrum, but from a lineout Murcia XV controlled the maul and broke away near the line to go over for the first try of the game. With the game going from end to end, from a scrum after another knock on Orihuela RFC got the ball out wide for Chema to to over in the corner after some great link up play by the players. The home side went in 7-5 down and with both teams having everything to play for and some great rugby being played by both teams it was another line breaking run by Tirso and great support from Edu to go over to take the lead. With mistakes been made by both teams and some silly penalties as well it was a clearance kick that Sergio collected and took on the defence breaking through a few tackles and excellent hands and support by the players for Tirso to go over under the posts and Alvaro to get the extras and give some breathing space for a very tense last few minutes. With time ticking away and one last attack of the game the home side attacked the Murcia XV defence again and got the ball out wide to Jaime to be driven over for the all important try bonus point to give ITV Orihuela a fantastic 22-7 win. Murcia XV came with a very strong team, which was always going to be difficult to beat, but Orihuela RFC players dug deep and pulled out all the stops to get this fantastic victory. All credit must also go to Murcia XV for their part in the game, which was played in the great spirit of rugby. Next up is Cartagena away for both the cadetes and B team on 26 April. At the weekend ITV Orihuela RFC first team travelled to Murcia to play the last league game of the season against Murcia XV. Murcia XV started off the stronger of the two teams with Orihuela RFC been camped in for own 22 for long periods of time, but as like with the rest of the season the Orihuela RFC defence stood strong, eventually giving away a penalty after 10 minutes for Murcia XV to take the lead. Orihuela RFC started to slow take more control off the game, but were left exposed at the back to the counter attack. This was not the only negative side to the first half as Murcia XV dominated the scrums and the lineout and with the driving maul soon fell behind to two converted tries. With the pressure beginning to tell Orihuela RFC fell further behind and were 29-3 down at the end of the first half. Things were looking grim for the away side, but as with the rest of the season Orihuela’s never say die attitude still was there, and in the second half things were far more evenly matched and were starting to win the lineout and scrums and to pressurise the Murcia line and came away with some reward with a converted try to bring the score 29-10.
Murcia brought on fresh legs to close the game out and came away 36-10 winners, but if Orihuela RFC had contested more at the lineout maybe they just might of got something out of the game, but as it was the best team on the day came out on top after a comfortable first half to lay the platform for the win. This result meant that ITV Orihuela came forth with Albacete been league champions and go into the play offs. Well done to all of the ITV Orihuela RFC players for a hard fought season, and now we know what is to be done ready for the new season and up and coming 7’s season. This weekend the cadetes are at home against Murcia XV kicking off at 16.00, followed by the second team also against Murcia XV at 17.30. At the weekend ITV Orihuela RFC cadetes were away to Lorca while the B team were at Totana, who have been improving week on week in their first season. ITV Orihuela RFC surprisingly came away with an emphatic bonus point try win 65-7. That is all I know as I was not playing. As for the cadetes were hoping to get back to winning ways after their unbeaten record was taken from them against UCAM in there last game. Having only been able to go to Lorca with 13 players things were not going to be easy from the start, but they got off to a great start after some strong defence by the home side David managed to break through to get the get the games opening try by powering through and Gregory the extras. Towards to end of the first quarter Gregory got in on the try scoring act with some quick feet dancing through the defence and again getting the conversion, but Lorca were not going to lie down and hit back pinning the opposition back on their own line and after a great try saving tackle by David they eventually went over in the corner.
Orihuela RFC hit back with another try attacking from deep with Jose going over to put Orihuela RFC back in charge, but Lorca were determined to make sure they were going to make them work hard for it and just before half time hit back with another try going in at half time 19-10 to Orihuela RFC. In the second half Lorca went at Orihuela RFC and picked up another try, before Orihuela RFC put some distance between the teams with two more tries with Gregory and Jose, scoring one more a piece. Again Lorca came back with a converted try to bring the scores to 22-29 Orihuela RFC. This was not the end of it with David again scoring an excellent try and Gregory for the conversion to make it a very tense finish with just before the end Lorca getting a well deserved try bonus point to eventually bring the final score 29-36 to Orihuela RFC. All credit must go to Lorca for their never say die attitude, which gave them two points out of the game with a try and losing bonus point. The next game is away to Murcia for the A team this weekend, 22 March, kicking off at around 17.00, it is their final game of the season. This is followed on 29 March by the cadetes and the B team at home to Murcia XV. |