The U18 Falcons played their first league game against Billingham at home on Sunday. With a decent crowd of home supporters the team were a little apprehensive but looking forward to starting their season.

Billingham received the ball from the start and for the first 10 minutes Billingham retained possession and tested Keswick’s defensive line, but they held strong and gave very little ground away despite the pressure.

Once Keswick gained possession it was their turn to retain it. The pressure from
Keswick was relentless, the forwards worked tirelessly and despite a few missed breaks the backs eventually worked the ball down the line, with a looping manoeuvre from Abbie Burton resulting in her crossing the try line.

A few minutes later Lillia Burton took the opportunity of Billingham dropping a pass, to kick the ball ahead and with a quick chase beat the defender to touch down for a try.

Half time brought the opportunity to switch the team around and bring fresh legs on. Keswick dominated possession again and another loose ball from Billingham allowed Lillia Burton to once again kick the ball ahead before collecting it and offloading to Abbie Burton who ran it over the try line.

A ballsy run by Issie Booth down the centre of the pitch and a great offload to support player Annie Fawcett, saw her make a great break for the try line before selflessly offloading to winger, Claudia Airey to score a try.

Soon after the restart a well executed Keswick scrum and ball through the backs allowed Willow Green to run to the corner flag to score Keswick’s 5th try.

Billingham used the ground gained from the restart and a quick penalty tap to drive the ball over for their first try, which was converted.

Shortly after the restart Meya Moore used the same tactic and with a quick penalty tap she exploited a gap in Billingham’s
defence and weaved her way through 5 players to make a cracking run to the try line.

Another great break from Keswick’s backs saw Abbie Burton make a driving running before being tackled and popping the pass to Laura Jayne Donoghue-Weir who continued the attack before making a superb back handed offload to Abbie Burton who had managed to get back up to support and make her way over the line to complete her hat trick of tries. Willow Green converted. A great start to her first game for Keswick.

Despite the scoreline and the continuous pressure from Keswick, Billingham never let their heads drop and continued to attack, which after a series of phases managed to feed the ball to a strong driving back who broke Keswick’s defensive line and scored the final try of the game in the the last minute of the game, which was then converted.

The whole team put in a shift and worked tirelessly, the constant pressure forced Billingham to make mistakes which Keswick were able to capitalise on.

Final score 37-12

Opposition player : Teagan
Coaches Forward : Connie
(for creating opportunities and driving forward)
Coaches Back : Claudia
(for constant support play and a couple of crucial tackles)

The U18 Falcons coaches have received lots of positive feedback from the side-lines, from Falcon players, senior men players, other coaches and parents, which is so encouraging and well deserved.

Comments were made several times about the senior Falcons having to keep an eye out for their positions in the future!

Great 1st league result and in-front of a fantastic bunch of home supporters.