Teams 
Bideford Under 12s have been struggling with game time recently and travelled in hope of a couple of games to Launceston, but unfortunately the 18 lads that travelled only had 20 mins of rugby each due to a shortage of players for the home team.
The first half was a real challenge with Launceston committing heavily to the breakdown in numbers on occasions four players hitting the rucks with decent force. Bideford had coached a maximum of two to the breakdown and unfortunately the numbers Launceston put in went against us for a majority of the first half. Despite this Bideford used the ball that they had very well and some excellent running from Finn and Seb started to expose the gaps in the Launceston defence.
Caleb was absolutely superb over the ball and turned over numerous balls whilst staying on his feet and on one occasion he turned the ball over for Alfie to set off on a decent run selling two dummies in a row and then off loaded to Finn on the support who ran from the half way to score the opening try of the day.
Launceston came back strong and attacked the tight channel a great tackle near the try line from Harry was touched down by Launceston to level the game but an increasing penalty count and turn over balls went against the Biddy boys and they started to lose confidence from their efforts. Oli C was having to go in the rucks to try and turn the ball over, which he did very well.
Theo and Thomas had to work very hard in defence and with Olly G making head way in the midfield I would have suggested that a full game would have been a great contest .
At half time is was all change in personnel and it seemed that Launceston size was the contributing factor. Again the rucks were a point of contention on numbers and a few times the Biddy lads couldn’t play due to the offside line being breached. The boys struggled to adjust to this and again started to lose a bit of their confidence.
Clark led the way in the second half with some thumping tackles all over the pitch he also carried the ball very well, but an off the ball incident forced him into a time out along with the Launceston player, but when he came back on he was back to his usual wrecking ball tackles.
Olly was the pick out wide. He was so unlucky not to get past the last defender after beating three others. His balance and foot work were great and it would have been great to see him get the score. Jake managed the ball well at nine and George made a fantastic tackle on a guy easily three times the size of him!
Eddie and Little Adam continued on their rugby progression having to defend most of the game and both made decent tackles during the game. It was a tough day in the second half and Adam N was one of the biggest guys on the pitch, but was tackled very well by the young Launceston players but when Adam N hit the rucks it took two or three players to move him. Oscar also had a couple of nice runs.
Seb took a fair old hit to the shoulder and had to come off whilst Launceston scored a try. Finn came back on to help add some attacking options and carry on where he left of Finn the first half with some cracking runs. Alfie also come on to assist in the dying minutes putting in some big tackles .
Lots to learn from the day and lots to work on, but looking forward to next weeks game with Okehampton.
