19 Maids Under 11s travelled to Twickenham to take part in the Harlequins' Curtain Raiser competition. The squad was made up of some players new to rugby this season and others with a bit more experience, and all had been looking forward to running out onto The Stoop in front of a roaring crowd!

It didn't quite turn out like that as a) the Quins game against Munster had been brought forward to suit Sky TV so there weren't many spectators milling around at 09.30 b) the game itself had been switched to Twickenham and c) the Under 11s weren't on the Stoop pitch anyway, but round the back on a training pitch!!

However, that didn't stop us! Although Bromley had failed to turn up with an U11 squad, there were two other sides, one from Trojans (near Southampton) and one from Cranleigh, and Maids played 2 games against Trojans and one against Cranleigh.

After a slow start (traditional!) against a much bigger Trojans pack Maids showed their usual defensive strengths, but couldn't break through in attack. Game lost 2-0. Against Cranleigh Maids were much more awake and Jonathan Perry capped his best display yet at scrum-half with a great try, showing all his (inherited?) speed to go right round the opposition back line. Alas, it was not quite enough and Maids went down 1-2.

Having woken up, Maids fancied another crack at Trojans. It was a fine display by Maids, marred only by a ref with - shall we say - limited knowledge of the laws of the game, and an opposition who decided that feigning injury to stop the game was easier than tackling our players. At least half a dozen Maids attacks were stopped in their tracks by yet another Trojans player rolling in the mud, only to recover miraculously seconds later.

There was much to be proud of in these games: amongst others, Mike Trevena, Leo Smith and Will Turner put in outstanding tackles; Matthew Smith showed composure at full back; Oliver Bartlett and Alex Avery drove much bigger opposition right off the ball; Duncan Jones threw dummies; Steven Carn showed his pace..... It would also be fair to say that our all round tackling display was poor and this is a fundamental area of the game we have to get right if we are to match the achievements of last season.

Anyway, still wondering where the curtain was that we were supposed to be raising, we set off to Twickenham to watch Quins vs Munster. Quins got an interception and scored more or less in front of us from 80 yards out quite early on. Thereafter the game was a lot tighter than anyone had predicted, and in fact in the 2nd half we would have to admit that the Mexican Wave provided distinctly more entertainment than some passages of play. Nonetheless the U11s were part of a record breaking crowd for a Heineken Cup game of 33,000+ and I think all the players enjoyed it - which was the whole point!