Match reports from the Guildfordians Minis at the Bournemouth Festival - 30 March 2008
Summary Under 7s Under 8s Under 9s Under 10s
We took 134 players, coaches and parents on tour to Weymouth this weekend, tired them out, put the clocks forward and got them up early and they still managed to perform brilliantly against stong opposition. Another proud day for the club.
U7s 3rd overall at Quins (out of 60)
U9s 4th overall at Quins (out of 60)
After that at Bournemouth the teams performed superbly to progress in all age groups as follows:
U10s Final of the Shield
U9s Final of the Cup
U8s Semi-finals of the Cup
U7s Semi-finals of the Plate
The coaches have worked their socks off this weekend with the U9s led by Mike Holden making the effort to drive from Weymouth (on tour) to the Stoop and back in a day, to then drive onto play at Bournemouth on Sunday - and the U9s play contact rugby!
After the success of the U7s qualifying at Quins we entered a very small squad into the Bournemouth Festival which included Henry Reeves Turner from the U8s playing down. With illness we lost 2 of the U7 players and called on further support with Georgie Illing-Wood from the U8s and Jules B-Lovett from the U6s which brought the team up to the required 7.
Our first game Eastleigh Pirates was a very tight match. Eastleigh were a good side and probably got the worst of the reffing decisions in a 5-5 draw. Not a bad start considering most players had only just arrived before kick off.
In our second game we played against a Barbarians team. We played much better and put in some good defence. Henry Reeves Turner, Georgie Illing-Wood and Nick Thorn scored well worked tries weaving through their defence with ease. The final score was 5-1.
Our third game against Salisbury 2nds was another close game. We lost 6-4 which was a fair reflection of the game
If we won our final pool match we would be through to the semi finals of the shield or plate. We had already missed the opportunity of the Cup. If we lost we would be out and if we drew then we were reliant on the tie break. Our final game against Hemel Hempstead 2 was another close game. At half time we were down 3-2 and looking to outscore Hemel by two tries in the 2nd half to guarantee moving to one of the semi finals. Hemel were a good team and this was a challenge. In the end we scraped a 5-5 draw.
So down to the tie break: we were level with Salisbury 2nds. We were given the nod as a result of the result of our final pool match - we drew; Salisbury lost.
We finished 3rd in the pool and went on to the semi final of the Plate against New Milton. New Milton scored first (which would have given them the win if we had drawn) and were soon ahead by a couple of tries. We kept going and managed to prevent the gap growing with tries through Zoe B-Lovett amongst others. Final score 6-4 to New Milton
Overall the U7s had a great day in good conditions. Due to the small squad they all had a lot of match time and I'm sure will be feeling tired tonight. Well done to the whole team.
Match Report - Neil Jones
Semi-finalists in the shield.
Two very late nights, lots of activity - rock climbing, big swing, zip wire, Jacobs ladder, fencing, quad bikes and much more and clocks going forward meant a group of very tired but excited children and extremely jaded parents arrived at Bournemouth for the festival. We were joined by others who came down for Guildford so we did have some fresh legs.
Two teams and both started really well. Guildford 2s running out 4-3 winners. The second game against Oakmeadians was a much harder game with some very strong and fast runners (with some children asking "how old are they?") but were not disgraced in a 6 -2 loss. The 3rd game they came out with a 3 -3 draw which meant their last pool game against Swanage & Wareham would decide whether they went into the plate final. Unfortunately a draw was not enough and though they had the same number of points Guildford 2s lost out on tries conceded.
Guildford 1s played some great rugby winning all four of their pool games which took them into the Cup semi final where they met Bridgend. Regardless of my comments over the referee Bridgend were extremely well organised and very well drilled. On a narrow pitch they were able to box us in preventing the team from moving the ball quickly out to the wings. Their runners were off loading the ball very quickly when tagged and something we will need to look at next Sunday. Bridgend ran out 4 - 0 victors and went on to win the Cup against Oakmeadians 3-1 I think.
The Players were a bit low but played extremely well to reach the semi final only to lose to the eventual winners. I believe Bridgend also took the U9 final against Guildford.
Well done to all the children I suspect that it will be an early night for all.
Simon Hinckley U10s coach
It was an early start again, after two late nights and much energy used at Quins the day before we were hoping for some good games and much fun. Our first game was against Eastleigh, we started well and and capitalised on their mistakes. Morgan Holden scored 2 tries in the first half from the back of our scrum, and our lead was extended by Jack Baldwin who showed great pace and ran in from the halfway line. Our final try was scored by Matt Wells, giving us a comfortable 4-0 win. The second game was against New Milton and Matt Wells got us off to a great start with an early try followed by 2 tries from Morgan Holden giving us a 3-0 victory.
Our third game was against Salisbury, a well organised team who pushed us hard but Morgan Holden broke free and scored a try to settle the nerves. He followed this with another in a well worked move with Toby Marsh from a line out. Salisbury broke free and had a clear path to the try line, but didn't anticipate Toby Marsh running on from an injury to make a try saving tackle. Final score 2-0. Our final pool game was against Bournemouth who went 1-0 up to give us a fright before Morgan Holden ran in for 2 tries followed by Matt Wells with another 2, then Jack Lillistone and Imogen Harms got one each to give us a 6-1 win.
We had made the semi final of the cup and were put against a very strong Llandaff North. It was a very hard game with few opportunities to score and we were under a lot of pressure. We won a lineout 5 metres from our own try line, Toby Marsh and Morgan Holden combined again enabling Morgan to run the full length of the pitch to score the only try of the game and put us into the final. We met a very large and well organised Bridgend in the final who dominated the game. We looked tired and the players had no more energy left to give and we lost 5-0 against a very good team. The parents were delighted at the effort, commitment and teamwork shown by the squad, the children were devastated they had lost but had enjoyed the ride. There were many highlights but nobody will forget, especially the opposition, Jack Lillistones tackles. If he tackles you once, you spend the rest of the game ensuring he can't get near you again!
The team was Jack Lillistone, Kezia Winter, Lewis Kinchin, Alex Grubb, Miles Crates, Toby Marsh, Matt Wells, Imogen Harms, Hannah Harms, Jack Baldwin and Morgan Holden.
Mike Holden
U9's Coach
30th March 2008 - 2nd overall!
Following a day of torrential rain, sleet, hail and gales along with 2 days and late nights of outdoor activities at the PGL Centre at Osmington Bay the Guildfordians U10's set off early Sunday morning to the Bournemouth Festival. Thankfully a number of players very kindly travelled down on the day to allow us to take part, many thanks to Alex Mason for finding us a player to assist us making the numbers to 10 players in total.
Things didn't start well, Alex Williams took an unfortunate knock in warm up and ended up with a large lump on this head, the medical team advised him to sit out the first game - we were down to 9 players.
The 1st game was against Eastleigh Pirates, a team we have played a few times before and they have always been very close matches having been beaten by them the first year and drawing against them last year. The match started well for us with Tudor Forbes (Centre) scoring 2 tries after a good period of pressure from the Guildfordians team, the Pirates rallied and returned with a good attack to score a try. Following a brilliant run from Stuart (Centre) it sealed the match with a 3 - 1 win to Guildfordians.
The 2nd game was a complete contrast to the 1st game having had to swap some positions over to enable us to compete a bit more in the set pieces Swanage & Wareham ran in 3 very good tries. Guildfordians tried to rally and Matthew Davies (Flyhalf) scored a try driving though the middle of the field, to which Swanage and Wareham ran in another 3 tries, they were a very well drilled side which played excellent Rugby. Fortunately for this game Alex had recovered from his bang on the head so he was able to play but we lost Stuart who was exhausted after having a week away on a school trip so back to 9 players.
The 3rd game was against Salisbury 2's, this again was going to be a tough game especially with no substitutes, Salisbury opened the scoring with a run though our defense which took our players by surprise. Guildfordians then re grouped and from a lineout near the Salisbury line which Salisbury won but fumbled Tudor Forbes (now prop) was through on the ball just getting a hand to it first to score. Tudor then ran another try in against Salisbury for Guildfordians to take the lead. Following a great team effort the ball was passed out to Nic Bell (Winger) to run in an excellent try. Shame Martin Squires (coach) wasn't there to see his dream come true - a winger scoring. The final score in a tough game was 3 - 1 to Guildfordians.
The 4th and final pool game was against Bournemouth 2's, and to the surprise of the Guildfordians team it was being refereed by a Viking. Guildfordians soon took control of the game absorbing everything Bournemouth threw at them and attacking the Bournemouth line constantly. Trys were scored by George Mason (Prop), 3 from Matthew Davies (Fly Half), 2 from Tudor Forbes (Prop) and a excellent run about half the length of the pitch from Matthew Kipping. The final score was 7 - 0 to Guildfordians, it was a much tougher game than the score suggests.
The results meant that the Guildfordians team had now qualified to play for the shield and the 5th game was against a very strong team Llandaf North, by this time Stuart had recovered a bit & was now fit to play again. Llandaf North ran in 2 good tries in the 1st half, after a good talk at half time the Guildfordians team came out all fired up and Tudor Forbes (prop) scored 2 brilliant tries much to the surprise of Llandaf North with the game finishing 2 -2.
Due to the tournament rules which were based on tries scored we progressed to the shield final against Bournemouth.
The final was against Bournemouth 1's, this was going to be a very tough game with most of the players now being worn out after 5 games. Bournemouth had the edge and opened the scoring, Tudor Forbes (prop) drew the game level with another excellent try. Bournemouth scored again by carving though our defensives to make the score 2 - 1 at half time. In the 2nd half Bournemouth game out even harder and scored another 3 tries whilst Guildfordians were unable to score in return. Bournemouth won the Festival 5 - 1 with Guildfordians getting the runners up medals.
A great day was had by all with every player giving everything they had to keep the team playing, it isn't just about who scores the tries but the team work from all of the players allowing us to get into that position to score. A very well run Festival.
If we had a few more players the final result could have been a lot different in the final - here's to next year.
Report by Simon Davies U10s coach