U9s sink SuperMarine at Twickenham

15th September 2007

Not many rugby players can claim to have played in front of 40,000 supporters, but that is exactly what ten young lads from Maidenhead Rugby Club can now say, after winning the final of the London Rugby Festival on the hallowed turf at Twickenham.

Saturday 15^th September saw Maidenhead's Under 9s team compete in a tag rugby tournament involving 17 other clubs from across the South of England. The qualifying matches were played in the morning at The Stoop, home of Harlequins RFC. The teams that scored the most tries in these matches would earn the ultimate prize of playing their final on the famous Twickenham pitch.

Maidenhead's first match was against Andover and Harry McCaffrey got them off to a flying start. His score was followed by two well-worked tries from Olie McGregor, before Harry Wells touched down to clinch a 20-10 victory.

In energy-sapping conditions, and with the sun beating down, Maids then faced two back-to-back matches, which would test their stamina to the limit. The first of these pitted Maids against Fullers and saw them emerge 20-5 winners, with tries from McCaffrey, Alex Sutton and two from Tom 'Moose' Green in a powerful performance.

Next they came up against the pre-tournament favourites, Upminster, but Maids showed their class and superior fitness levels to achieve a wonderful 30-5 victory, with tries from Jake Jenkins (2), Wells (2), McGregor and Sutton, who ran the length of the field after a brilliant interception near his own line.

After three games, Maids had chalked up an impressive 14 tries, but knew that they would need to score at least four more in their final match against Reading to make it through. Tension was high, but some brilliant tagging in defence, added to some beautifully executed 'switch' moves in attack, Maids eased to a 30-10 win, which guaranteed their appearance at Twickenham later that day. Try scorers were McGregor, Wells, Sutton (2), Jenkins and Green.

As the half-time whistle blew in the London Double Header Premiership match between Wasps and Saracens, Maidenhead and their opponents, SuperMarine RFC, were invited onto the lush-green Twickenham playing surface. Not fazed by playing in front of the huge crowd, Maids finished the day in style with a 15-5 win and Wells, Caiden Venables and Saul Payne can now all claim to have scored tries at Twickenham. Perhaps something to tell the grand-children; although, you never know, they may be doing it again in a few years' time!

Maidenhead Under 9s: Harry Wells, Alex Sutton, Olie McGregor, Jake Jenkins, Tom Green, Harry McCaffrey, Caidan Venables, Saul Payne, Thomas Maclean and Marc Hedouin.