Match report from the Surrey As on 18 April 2010
On a glorious sunny day at the foot of the Surrey Hills the U9s banished the disappointment of the Quins Final and showed that they had learnt so much from that cold grey Easter Saturday. At the Surrey As they played a much better mauling and rucking game - still loads to learn of course but so much better! It deservedly got them to within a sniff of the Cup Final - being edged out in the Semi-Final by the eventual winners (and the Quins Champions) Rosslyn Park.
In the Group stage we first came up against a well-drilled Richmond side. It was a very good encounter and tight all the way through. The Gs made good advances and chances came. Connor Jones was edged into touch just as he went over in the first half - but in the second half he set off on another storming charge down the wing - Bo Beynon stayed with him and when the off load came Bo was there to touch-down. It was enough and the Gs won it 1v 0.
The next match was against Warlingham. The lads knew that if they were to progress in the Cup element of the competition they needed to win again, and they started at a canter with storming runs from Alasdair Bulman and ground shuddering tackles from Angus Lovatt. Warlingham decided that they didn't really fancy it and allowed the Gs to swarm over them. Alasdair picked up 2 great tries, Tom Perceval and Connor Jones a speeding-try a piece, Dan Michell showed great hands to pick-up and surge over, and finally Ben Sambrook and Ollie Bliss both dived on a loose ball to make sure we ran out 6 v 0 winners.Ironically the performance was not as good as against Richmond but we were up and running and confidence was building as we progressed into the Cup as group winners.
In the Quarter Final we came across Farnham, another good team who had won their group easily. The Gs though were on a run and although it was a tight game Guildfordians always had the upper-hand and quietly started to notch-up the points. Connor and Tom did the damage again with another try each, before Finlay McManus crashed over to take us 3 up. However, Farnham never gave up and pulled one back to make it 3 v 1. Farnham then showed what a decent club they are by coming over after the 3-cheers formalities to wish us all the best for the rest of the competition. A nice touch and really good to see such sporting behaviour.
This took us to the Semi Finals against Rosslyn Park. At the Quins Finals we were in awe of a Kings side who simply blew us away 4 v 0. Park had beaten Kings in the Final - so how good must these guys be?! There was a lot of talk about that before the match and lots of talk from the coaches about defeatest attitudes and the need to 'believe'. Believe they did - and with the caveat that there is one more tournament to go before the end of the season - what was to come was the performance of the year.The boys started a little in awe - got drawn into the mauls early on, forgetting to keep their shape (we need to work on this!). The Park speedsters then simply blasted around the edge where there was no cover. We were 2 down before we knew it. The Gs could easily have collapsed but the passion was evident and we hauled ourselves back in. Alasdair again led the way with some great runs, then as we put a load of pressure on the Park line he was able to crash over to score. We were back in it! In the second half we kept up the pressure, giving them no respect. As they worked on a free-pass move of great complexity, Angus simply decided to sort out the pivot-man. Rosslyn Park weren't used to this and they were rattled. The Gs suddenly realised they could actually win this! But Park aren't the champs for nothing and they have some amazing runners. They worked it out wide again to make it 3 v 1 with a turbo-boosted try. Game apparently over - not if Charlie Hubbard had anything to do with it! He picked up the ball and ran to the centre to get started again! Motivational stuff! Then there was Nick Thorn who at 3 v 1 stopped a certain try with an outragous one on one tackle. There were heroics being shown all over the field, none more so when Charlie Hellier charged at their defence like a young bull elephant - they just couldn't stop him! With players hanging off him he ran a quarter of the pitch. The Green Army were all with him, we moved the ball wide and Connor pinned back his ears and scorched over in the corner! Now, in this competition if there is a score draw the team that scores 'last' wins. Game on! We hassled, tackled, mauled, got right in their faces, none more so than Henry Miguda who was eventually 'squished' for his bravery. It really was a cracking match as the action surged back and forth. But we couldn't force an equaliser and it ended 3 v 2 to Rosslyn Park. These were the only 2 tries they conceded all tournament. In the final they beat Kings 3 v 0 and their coach told the Guildfordian boys that ours was the hardest match they had played all season. We will only get better by playing this sort of quality opposition. We've got so much to learn (rember they are only 9 and this is their first season of contact) but we really can compete with the 'big-boys' and we will only get better from here.
At the end, despite losing, it was great to see the boys engage in an impromptu and joyful Conga. They might have lost but they had just had a great day out in the sun with their mates ...oh and managed to be one of the four best sides in Surrey! A well-earned ice cream for all and we should not forget that Guildfordians were actually represented in the Cup Final. A massive, massive thank you to Kelvin who gave up his entire Sunday to ref for us and was so good that he was chosen to ref in the Cup Final! And an excellent job he did too!
The extremely talented U9s were: Bo Beynon, Ollie Bliss, Alasdair Bulman, Charlie Hellier, Charlie Hubbard, Connor Jones, Angus Lovatt, Finlay McManus, Daniel Michell, Henry Miguda, Tom Perceval, Ben Sambrook, Nick Thorn.
Lee Sambrook - U9s Coaching Team
It was a beautiful day, but the ground was hard and finding grass on the pitch was as easy as getting a flight out of Heathrow!
Our first game was against an extremely well organised and efficient Chobham. They played a very disciplined game and gave us little chance to threaten their line. They managed to cross our try line once in the first half but in the second half their superior possession and skill led to another 3 tries. The game ended 24-0.
The second game was against Warlingham, it was a very close affair in which we showed a lot of passion and desire to make amends for our poor showing in the first game. However Warlingham scored first with long weaving run from their 22 which scattered our defence to give them a 7-0 lead going in to half time Despite a lot of effort it was later on in the 2nd half when Tom Nicole managed to battle his way over the line and touch the ball down at full stretch to give us a chance to draw level, Morgan Holden converted successfully to end the game 7-7. Warlinghams coaches gave a great example of how not to behave during and especially following the game.
We then had a long wait to see which play off we would be in, after conferring with most of the ref’s and debating the rules of the tournament it was decided that we drew with Warlingham for 2nd place in the group. The draw was decided first on points gained in the matches (Both teams had 1 point each for the draw) then by points scored by the teams, again the only points either team had scored was 7 against the other, so it all came down to the toss of the coin. They called tails, we lost! In fairness this is the way it should have ended anyway as we had conceded more points than they had.
This took us into the Bowl quarter finals against Old Caterhamians.
It was a very tight game with both teams enjoying good possession. Despite Tom Nicole making a brave charge from a linout on their 5m line & grounding the ball it was disallowed for a foot in touch. Some more good runs by Matt Wells & Morgan Holden all proved fruitless and we went into half time 0-0. The 2nd half started well with their kick taken well by Jack Baldwin and a hard run with great support from Henry Stevens got us back into their half, despite more pressure from both teams it ended a tie. This took us into the terrible position of having to nominate a kicker for a penalty shoot out. Morgan Holden bravely stepped up to the plate, the 10m kick was good, the 20m kick looked stronger than theirs, their kicker just got over the bar with the 30m kick but despite having more height & distance a freak gust of wind blew Morgan’s third attempt onto the upright & by the narrowest of margins it bounced back into the pitch, a very sad way to have to end a hard day’s work.
A disappointing day but the teams effort couldn’t have been better. I think lack of practice and fatigue took their toll. Three games in four and half hours is a great example of how not to manage Minis rugby!
The team was: Miles Crates, Callum Cunningham, Toby Hatton, Toby Marsh, Adam Rutledge, Henry Stevens, Peter Marney, Joe Sambrook, Jack Baldwin, Jack Beynon, Louis Brennan-Card, Matthew Gee, Morgan Holden, Jack Lillistone, Tom Nicole & Matthew Wells.
Russ Baldwin/Mike Holden - U11’s Coaches