Ivel had the first kick off and pushed hard with Jake Oliver getting their first Try within 10 mins.  Swanage & Ware (S&W) kicked off again, Ivel tackled well and pushed S&W backwards to gain the advantage, although S&W picked up their game to push Ivel back into their own half and carried on to secure their first converted Try. 

From an Ivel kick off the boys chased the ball into S&W’s 22.  S&W collected the ball and took Ivel back to the half way line.  Ivel defended well with good tackles by Jacob Pitman, Callum Tai and John Hicks.  However, Ivel lacked vital support for their break away runners killing any advantage they might have gained.  S&W dug in and started to look like the better side, pushing Ivel backwards into their own half again, going into half time the score was S&W 7, Ivel 5.

S&W kicked off for the second half with the ball going deep into Ivel’s end.  The ball was caught well by Jake Oliver who made good headway managing to get the ball back to the half way line but unfortunately, S&W took advantage of a mistake by Ivel and ran in their second Try. 

The game became very evenly matched for a 10 minute period with some excellent play by Will Lockie, Duncan Sowerby, Henry Corner, Bertie Clarke, James Haiselden, James Woodward and Connor Bell all trying to make headway.  Oscar Wignall had three brave runs but was stopped by S&W’s big defensive players.  Daniel Luck also had a very good game until a thigh injury forced him off the field.  Ben Kelly injured his knee in a rough tackle but played on.  Tom Pearce surprised himself when he caught the ball and found himself running almost 20 metres forward towards the Try line until he was stopped by a S&W tackle – good effort though!

Luke Harker took a good penalty kick to put the ball out to touch in S&W’s 22.   Ivel won a penalty scrum following an incident shortly after the S&W line out, except S&W won the ball back from the Ivel put in.  Ivel managed to get the ball back again.  Liam Moore had a good run gaining valuable yardage and almost helped take it over the Try line but S&W defended well, snatched the ball back and took control of the game.

With Ivel struggling to maintain formation,  this allowed S&W to push forward very easily.  After lots of “encouragement” from Coach Jon from the side line, Ivel began to listen and push up the field giving Jake Oliver the opportunity to get Ivel’s second Try, which was converted well by Luke Harker.  Ivel finally switched on and pressed up the field rapidly with some excellent passing down the line and an eventual third Try was scored by Daniel Finn in the top right hand corner.  The match ended Swanage & Ware 12 – Ivel 17.

Man of the match was Luke Harker for his intelligent kicking and determined play throughout the match.

U13s were comprehensively beaten by a bigger and better organised team.  Despite the score they played well as a team and there are many positives to take The forwards more than held their own in the scrums and line outs and the tackling in defence was at times awesome.  Ivel did come close on two occasions and the team played positively throughout despite the score line.  Ivel's man of the match was Jake Oliver who also captained the team.

This was an excellent match with some very good rugby being played by both teams.  There was good hard tackling, which made it quite a physical game with lots of injuries. Bridgwater had one exceptional player with immense speed who was difficult to stop when tackles were missed.  Duncan Sowerby played particularly well after a long layoff with a back injury. He played the first half and scored a Try, which was a fantastic achievement following such a long time away from the game.  The game was very close in the second half but Ivel managed to hold on to their one point lead to gain the victory.

Try’s were scored by: Daniel Luck (1), Duncan Sowerby (1), Cam Main (1)

Man of the match was shared between James Woodward and Chester House for the excellent performance playing in positions they are not used to playing in