Under 10s Kent Festival Prelims 14/03/2010
Despite the heroic efforts of the boys last weekend, we were unable to make it to the finals of the Kent Festival this year. It’s the first time we’ve ever had to miss the finals day, however, we won our group which took us through to the Cup playoffs – a place we’ve never managed to get to in the past 2 years. The boys played fantastic open rugby against a pretty weak Beccs B side who did not manage to score – it might have been possible for the ball carrier to simply run the length of the pitch, but instead they passed like professionals, resulting in 6 tries by 5 different players – Ollie S, Ben Tritton, Samuel, Jacob and Alex (x2) – and Alex won Man of the Match. In our second game we played Aylesford – not a strong side, but pre-disposed to tying the ball into the rucks and mauls using a number of large players. It was a messy game, but a stunning try out of nowhere from Alex secured us the victory, 1-0. Man of The Match went to Tuglet for sheer bravery, determination and skill in the face of players much larger, but less determined than him. Our final group match against Ash was our hardest – they were unexpectedly skilled in comparison to last year (probably helped by a few large Dover players who attended to make up numbers – Dover couldn’t raise a team), with some fast runners and a game style similar to our own. However our superior rucking and mauling skills won us some good clean ball for the backs, allowing the team to spin it wide and run in 3 tries to Ash’s 1 – all of which were from close to our own goal line to the other end of the pitch. Jacob, Samuel and Ayrton each ran one in, with points for style (but the first round in the bar for being such a poser) went to Samuel for his swallow-dive try, and Man of the Match went to Jacob Arbury. Our final match against Blackheath in the Cup playoffs was a hard match dominated by Blackheath’s abnormally large players who tied in our players to the rucks and mauls, and turned over almost all our scrums and lineouts. The boys never once let their heads go down and fought to the last – demonstrating the awesome defensive ability and determination they had delivered all day - but sadly they were unable to provide a reply to Blackheath’s 3 tries. However they should be proud of a fantastic performance, and Tuglet won and unprecedented 2nd MOTM award for determination & bravery bordering on the suicidal, fighting for every ball in the rucks and mauls. So alas we are not going to TJ’s for the finals – but very, very well done to the boys for a top-class performance. We’re all very proud of them, and there are 3 more festivals to come so I’m sure we’ll taste success before the season is out.
