Firstly well done to all of the all of the boys who played at Ipswich today.

The conditions were cold and wet, with a nice combination of sleet and snow, and with the wind it felt like -1 degrees when we first arrived, although it did start to warm slightly as the morning went on!

What was great this morning, was that all the boys played together, as a cohesive team and where we have seen the Wolves being a little slow to start, this certainly was not the case today!

I originally thought we would be getting 3 games but due to the conditions, we decided to play 4 x 12 minute games, to ensure that we kept the boys moving and all actively involved.

From a coaching perspective this was a great performance with everyone doing their job in the 1st half of the first game and by half time we were 5 tries up without conceding.

We then looked to play boys out of their normal positions and even in the final quarter swapping the back to be forwards and forward to be backs. This helps the boys appreciate other positions, encourages them to take contact and in conditions like today, importantly keeps them warm

To recap again the commitment from everyone was outstanding and you all gave it 100% and more. So well done to everyone

Game 1 (first 2 quarters)
The Wolves started as they meant to go on. From the kick off they returned the ball at pace, with some lovely passing from the backs to see Will S score in the corner. With every carry of the ball the Wolves were making some great ground, but the Ipswich counter ruck was very good (we can work on this at our next training session)
However the forwards of Bernard, Freddie, Leon, Sol and Riley were constantly getting over the gain line, and with some excellent team and individual tries. Rhys scored a great scrum half snipe from the base of the scrum to keep adding pressure and at half time the Wolves had score 5 tries without conceding.

In the second half we moved the backs out of position moving, scrum halves to full backs, wings to fly half etc. The purpose of this is to push the boys to understand other positions, challenge them to see the game in a different context and then still try and deliver what they need to. This was another excellent half as the forwards continued to dominate the crash ball and great strength added a further 4 tries. Connor steered his backs well as Fly Half and you could see the spaces appearing as Ipswich started to fragment in their defence. This was a great team effort both in attack but the defence was superb. Well done to all!

Ipswich 0: Wolves 45 scorers: Will Spark (1), Rhys Jones (1), William Cameron (1), Riley Anderson (2) & Sol Moody (4)

Game 2 (second 2 quarters)
It was agreed that we would play the same Ipswich team again as the other match was still going on and we did not want the boys getting cold. In this game we moved a couple of the forwards into the centres with Adam & Sol to give some of the backs a rest and ensure all of the forwards were actively involved.
The forwards were again dominate as Archie C, Archie M, Josh W, Riley and Freddie were impervious in defence and turned over multiple balls in contact. This released the backs to capitalise on the space available with Adam getting his hatrick in the first half. Josh W, Riley and Archie C all added further scores to make this a strong pack performance.
The Wolves went into half time 6:0. In the second half we moved the backs to be forwards to see what they had learnt about contact skills and all of the boys stepped up and some great tries from Archie M, Will S and a lovely timed pass from Sol to put Will C into the corner meant the boys finished this half with another 6:0 performance

Ipswich 0: Wolves 60 scorers: Josh Wallis (1), Sol Moody (1), Will Spark (1), Archie Cansdale (1), Archie Murrell (1), William Cameron (1), Riley Anderson (3) & Adam Harwood-Hughes (3)

In the games it was a tough morning for some of the Ipswich boys, but remember boys that we have all been there and taken a drumming from the opposition.

What we were really pleased about today from the coaching perspective was that everyone was up for the contest, tackling was great, so well done and a great team effort from the Wolves.

Players of the Weeks
Tackle of the week: Josh Barnes who in the last quarter did a text book tackle, hitting a big Ipswich ball carrier low, wrapping his legs and driving forward to take the player down in a single movement. Well done Josh

Support player of the week: Support of the week could of gone to a number of players, as there was some great offloading in the tackle, but we decided on Archie Cansdale as he was constantly there in support and when receiving the ball made a lot of ground and scored a try. Well done Archie.

To recap we scored 21 tries with none conceded. There were 10 different boys scoring, which is outstanding. We tried different positions today, moving forwards to be backs etc and moving boys out of their normal positions.

The weather conditions were not great with the sleet and snow, but you all did phenomenally well.