U10s storm the Beaconsfield tournament

Sunday 8th March 2009

In a tournament where enjoyment and learning were positioned before winning, the squad representing the MRFC U10 B team did the club extremely proud. Before the tournament started the boys were asked to play as a team, support each other, tackle hard, carefully pass the ball and use the width of the pitch. The first match saw the Maids pitched against the Fullerians. From the off, the boys were focused, and despite one moment of lack of concentration, which saw Fullerians run a try in from the second half restart, the boys were comfortable winners with tries from Maclean, Sanders, Peberdy and two from Lawrie. After a 40-minute wait the second match, versus Bicester, kicked off. Determined to improve and stay strong, the team played incredibly well, recycled the ball superbly and did everything the coaches asked of them. The result of the match was deservedly 9-0 to Maids with tries from Sanders, Peberdy, two each from Rushton and Maclean, and a hat-trick from Lawrie.

The third match was against our old adversaries, Windsor. This was a very fiercely contested match with several high tackles testing our strongest players. Despite no tries in the first half, we dusted ourselves down, remained dogged and patient. Eventually we broke through the Windsor defence; with great rucking and running we scored four unanswered tries (Peberdy, Maclean, Holden and Sanders). As the wind increased, the gazebo took off into the skies like the Wizard of Oz and the final match loomed against Chinnor. Three hours after the beginning of the tournament, the skies opened and horizontal sleet came to test our players. The boys focused on maintaining their unbeaten record and weathered truly character building conditions to comfortably beat their last opponents 4-0, in the process demonstrating everything they had learnt and developed through the day, with fantastic tries from De La Fuente, Hickey, Maclean and Lawrie.

Although there was no official winner of this tournament, to score 22 tries and concede just one (we'll try better next time!!) there can't have been a better performance from any another team and the Maids can consider themselves champions. Maclean was voted the parents' player of the day, and every boy played with their heart and as a team displayed the kind of rugby each coach dreams of - well done boys!

Team: Gregory, Smith, Holden, Peberdy, Sanders, Maclean, Lawrie, Hickey, De La Fuente, Rushton, Banks, Curran.