U12s at the Saracens Tournament

11th November 2007

Maidenhead U12 A team travelled to North London for the Saracens minis tournament on Remembrance Sunday. The Maidenhead performance was pleasing to the eye with flowing rugby and quick ball.

Every team played four games with a seven minutes each way format. The first game against Amersham and Chiltern started nervously, both sides probing and testing each others defences. A&C found they couldn't break through even after a scrappy breakdown left hooker Hamish Rosser needing to be carried off. The final score was 0-0.

Saracens entered their B team, the Saracen Fez Heads into this A team tournament. Predictably Maidenhead As outclassed them and ran in 7 tries, the first coming from winger Aaron Wetton, the second by centre Owen Langstone, both tries built from possession an pressure in the Saracen half, the third a long solo run through the Fez head defence by Owen Langstone followed by a another from Peter Watts in the last seconds of the half. In the second half Saracens began by overthrowing their own lineout which gifted an alert scrum half, Peter Watts with a solo surprise attack ending in a try. Aaron Wetton then immediately emulated Watts by catching the ball at the restart and running through Fez Heads to score the sixth try. The final try was scored a few minute later when Peter Watts made full use of the territory and possession provided by the Maidenhead pack to pick another hole in the Fez Head defence. The final score was Maidenhead 35 Saracen Fez Heads 0

Kingsbridge are currently enjoying success in the West country an demonstrated why against Maidenhead. Although Maids rugby had a more watchable flow to it, Kingsbridge outgunned Maids with physicality and weight. In the first half the ball was immediately passed to the very large Kingsbridge number eight who pounded his way to the corner flag before conceding a penalty. This happened again a minute later with Kingsbidge again conceding a penalty. On their third attempt Kingsbridge passed the ball and drove through Maidenhead to score. Maids then stepped up a gear, taking the ball into the Kingsbridge half, second row Michael McPherson driving for the line and successfully offloading to a determined centre Ruth Dow who took the ball over the Kingsbridge try line. Unfortunately the ball was held up and the try disallowed. In the second half neither team scored, the Maidenhead defence holding solid against the Kingsbridge attack with the Maidenhead backs looking confident and dangerous on a couple of occasions. The final score was Maidenhead 0 Kingsbridge 5.

In the final match against Harrow, Maidenhead were playing for pride and didn't disappoint. In another try fest, this time against the Harrow As, number eight James O'Connor opened the account from a close range position. This exposed the fact that Harrow were reluctant to tackle. Tries then followed from long runs by Peter Watts, ful back Patrick Bart, centre Lee Flynn, and second row Charlie Thomas. In the second half, fly half Simon Graham ran through the whole Harrow defence to score with Owen Langstone and Peter Watts completing the try Smorgasbord. The final score was Maidenhead 35, Harrow 0.

This performance was unfortunately not good enough to gain entry to the final against the winners of the other pool but Maidenhead were satisfied with the solid team performance against at least two other very good teams. This was the final appearance of this team at the Saracen's tournament.