U14s enjoy the Esher Tens

Sunday 1st May 2006

For their final outing of the season (at least before their tour to Romania at the end of May) Maidenhead Under 14s visited Esher Rugby Club for their 10s Tournament.

It was to be a new experience for most of the clubs and was highlighted as a fun day. With that in mind the 15 man squad was mixed up throughout the day with players trying new positions and new partnerships being made in both the backs and the forwards.

With games against Esher, Wimbledon, Dorking and Twickenham Maids showed some fine form. All the boys stepped up to the mark and demonstrated superb tackling skills. This left the team and their parents wondering why they hadn’t done this earlier in the season! Icarus Congdon, Matt Todd and Oli Peach made sure that little got past them in defence and blindside moves from Jonny Wright and Patrick Boyd repeatedly troubled the opposition in attack. Louis O’Byrne showed his normal speed and picked up 5 tries throughout the tournament mainly thanks to the backline of Chris Heley, Jamie McLean and Mani Saundh who worked really well together and created the chances.

Phil Roberts, at hooker, played superbly all day and showed what a fine team member he is in support of his mates.

It wouldn’t be fair if mention didn’t also go to Warrick Ferrar and Jamie Townsend for two particularly gutsy performances and to Arthur Kellman and Tom Hudson who showed that they could move the ball quickly when needed. Finally Will Cadden’s support play needs special praise as was as prominent in attack as he was racing back to assist in defence.

It was billed as a fun tournament and it was just that. The team showed great support, good manners and no whinging if things went wrong. At the end of the day Maids won one, drew one and narrowly lost their other games. Somehow this really didn’t seem to matter much as Rugby was the winner on the day.

Squad: Boyd, Cadden, Congdon, Ferrar, Heley, Hudson, Kellman, McLean, O’Byrne, Peach, Roberts, Saundh, Todd, Townsend, Wright.