Match report from the Surrey Development Festival on 11 April 2010
Guildfordians U9 Battle to Plate final
Sunday 11th April saw Guildfordian U9s send a team to the Surrey Development festival. Thankfully the administrative mistakes of the previous season had been corrected by the festival organisers and play got underway on time with G’s first up against Dorking. After a nervous opening that saw both sides battling it out in the forwards via maul and then ruck our props Dan Sumner and Harry Twine turned over Dorking ball allowing our half back pairing of Thomas Eves and Dominic Ascough to break the gain-line and release Georgia Newman at inside centre who rounded the Dorking defensive line to touch down in the right hand corner. This encouraged Guildfordians to raise their game and two more tries followed in similar fashion before the half ended, the first by Georgia and then David Meerson on one of his typically mazy runs turning first inside and then out to wrong foot seemingly the entire Dorking backline and touch down to give the G’s a 3 – 0 half time lead. The second half was a closer affair until in the final minute, Stephen Coughlan powered through the despairing Dorking tackles to score and give the G’s a comfortable 4 – 0 win.
Brimming with confidence the G’s next opponents were Richmond and on paper a much tougher proposition, and so it was to prove with Richmond starting the game on the offensive and camping in Guildfordian’s half for much of the first period, during which Richmond managed to cross G’s tryline only for the player to be held up and driven back somewhere between 10 and 15 metres by the committed Guildfordian defence, surely impressing the watching Jason Leonard, England’s most capped player. Guildfordians tried to force their way out of their half but without the ball progress was slow and the teams turned round level at half time. The second half was again an attritional battle with G’s forwards seeking to redress the balance and force Richmond onto the back foot, but the backs were finding it harder with the Richmond defensive line holding firm until David Meerson broke from behind a maul in and arcing run to the right hand corner where he touched down for the only try of the game. Thomas Naisby followed up an impressive showing at centre in the first match with another typically resolute defensive performance seeing him bring down opponents far bigger than him until he finally succumbed to injury with a hyperextension of the ligaments in his thumb sadly ended his festival.
The third and final pool game pitched G’s against Old Caterhamians (or Old Cats) in a winner takes all pool decider, with both teams boasting a 100% record the winners would progress to the semi finals of the main competition while the losers to the Plate Semis. Old Cats had a size advantage over G’s, but this is something we have had to contend with all season and were not about to let it phase us now. Indeed our smaller players decided it was their turn to stand up and be counted with Nathan Jones and Luke Stokes prominent in the forwards and Luke Alexander providing some nice footwork and hard tackles on the wing. Both teams struggled to gain any ascendency in an evenly fought contest with Old Cats just shading the first half in terms of territory and crossing for a solitary try. G’s upped the intensity in the second half and powerful running from Oliver Cashmore and Tom Verlaque helped G’s gain territorial advantage with the team camped near the Old Cats line for long periods of the half. With a minute left on the clock another maul slowly edged towards the Old Cats try line and Dominic Ascough burrowed through and looked to have levelled the score only for the referee to determine the ball had been knock on in the act of scoring. Had the television replay system been working a referral might have resulted in a different decision as it appeared to the spectators that the ball was grounded correctly and then raked back by an Old Cat boot. Sadly that was the final play of the match and an unwelcome loss saw G’s move into the plate competition. A draw would have been a fair result on the balance of play, but on this occasion it wasn’t to be.
There was then a wait to find out the opposition and format of the Plate finals. Following a re-jig by the organisers, the 3 second placed teams from the group stages were to play each other in a round robin format to determine the winner. Up first was G’s against the hosts Sutton & Epsom and G’s started strongly continuing their impressive ruck and maul game from the opening round, nicely finished with the opening try from David Meerson out wide. With the score still at 1 – 0 at the break G’s went back on the offensive and another strong run from David brought him within inches of scoring, only to be held up, but support was on hand and Georgia Newman grabbed the ball and plunged over to reward G’s possession and territorial dominance. With seconds left on the clock and job seemingly done the team relaxed only to see Sutton & Epsom grab a try against the run of play, but that was to be only a consolation score with the game ending 2 – 1 to Guildfordians. Sutton & Epsom then played Rosslyn Park and following another tight game lost 2 -1 leaving Guildfordians and Rosslyn Park to battle it out for the plate.
Another close game saw both teams struggle to gain ascendency but in the end, as injury forced Gs to play forwards in the backs in the second half, Park managed to sneak over for a try and then as G’s looked to come back Park set up a counter attack and dived over the line in the dying seconds to win the match and the plate 2 – 0. It was a hard to lose such a close game, even more so as the trophy was to be awarded by England great, Lawrence Dallaglio, but Guildfordians can be proud of their efforts on the day and a truly great team effort. As coaches we are immensely proud of what this team achieved and the way they played throughout the festival with a totally committed performance from the entire squad.
Guildfordians squad were: Luke Alexander, Dominic Ascough, Oliver Cashmore, Stephen Coughlan, Thomas Eves, Nathan Jones, Georgia Newman, David Meerson, Thomas Naisby, Luke Stokes, Daniel Sumner, Harry Twine, Tom Verlaque.
Rob and Neil - U9s Coaching Team