On Monday July-22, the U17-boys played against a very large (both numerically and physically) Yarm-school squad, on their tour to the US and Canada.

The game was split into quarters (clearly, the touring-group have spent far too much time in America !!? ), but this allowed both squads to provide everyone on the sub’s-bench, a good chunk of playing time.

Right from the get-go this was going to be a tough and physical confrontation.  No quarter given, nor taken, both teams contesting-hard at every-breakdown.  With the “long” benches, it meant for a steady stream of fresher players at each stage – and the “elevated” game-intensity never faltered for a second. The two teams traded scores at every quarter, with Crusaders keeping their noses in-front throughout.

Some really great performances. Sean Snyman was hugely-robust at #9- able to deliver fast-ball, in-spite of massive-pressure from the opposition forwards.  Dancing-footwork from Daniel Sanders and Liam Bowman  made great in-roads into the defensive lines. But it was the crunching-tackles and powerful-rucking that most impressed.   Some of the bigger runners from the Yarm-team looked very-threatening at times, but the Crusaders-boys doubled-up where necessary, to bring-down their powerful-chargers.  The Crusaders slick-hands proved key, in converting fast-ball into scores via the out-wide players.

Kudos also to the U15-players who also stepped-in to bolster the Crusaders squad.  Over the whole game, the passion and desire ran high, as tempers were set on a seemingly “continuous-simmer” – but that intensity serves to show what this game meant to both sets of players. A really hard-fought battle for both squads – neither of whom was willing to back-down.  This is exactly what “competitive-rugby” is all about

And after the game, as the boys all got-together to share the post-game BBQ , that rivalry turned into friendship, and the consensus was that it had been a truly “great” game

Final score 29:24 to Crusaders, with man-of-the-match Daniel Sanders, as selected by the Yarm-players,  receiving some “snazzy” new socks as his prize.

Huge-Thanks for all the additional “goodies” for the post game feast, and to all those who (once-again) helped make it happen.

Well-done guys.