Mighty U7s unbeaten in Cleve cup win

Sunday 17th April 2005

Mighty Minis Unbeaten in Cup Win

Last Sunday saw Maidenhead U7s travel to Bristol to participate in the Cleve A team rugby tournament. With their other U7 squad having done so well at Marlow the previous week, the 10 strong squad for Cleve really wanted to see if they could bring back a trophy too.

There were two pools of four teams and the pool winners and runners up then went forwards to the knock out rounds. Maids were placed in a pool with Chippenham, Cleve and St Mary's.

The first game against Chippenham showed a strong Maidenhead squad pushing forward and tagging well, only conceding 2 tries but delivering 5 with a brace each for Ben Lawrence and Will Lawrence, and one for Abigail Dow.

Cleve were next to fall against the onslaught, with a thunderous 4 tries to 1 win. A pair went to Liam Cook with Chris Cousins and Julian Guy also making the score sheet.

With Maidenhead starting to look like tournament favourites, St Mary's threw everything into the match and proved to be the toughest opposition in the pool. Both teams played a very strong attacking style that was managed to probe and find holes in defences. Honours ended even with 6 tries all with a brace for Scott Prince and one each for Abigail Dow, Will Lawrence, Joel Greene and Oliver McGregor.

That performance put Maidenhead clear division winners and they would next play Hucclecote (who were the runners up in Pool B) in the semi-finals. Once again Maids played brilliantly as a team, pushing forward, tagging well and showing strong support. The match concluded with a convincing win 6 tries to 4 with excellent hat trick to Scott Prince and one try each for Liam Cook, Julian Guy and Joel Greene.

Maidenhead finally faced Clifton in the Trophy Final. This game was played well by both sides and was nail biting event for all the parents who were cheering their kids along as the pressure began to tell and mistakes started to be made. Maidenhead however one again turned on the power demonstrating strength in tagging and support to win the final 3 tries to 1 with a brilliant pair to Oliver McGregor and one to Joel Greene.

The pitches were quite small so were not well suited to the fast, open play that the squad revels in, however they adapted and excelled. This was a well deserved win with the strength and team work of the Maidenhead pack evident in how all the players in the squad contributed and was a fitting reward for all of the hard work throughout the season.