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U7s battle in the Saracens' Mud Sunday 16th November 2008
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Maidenhead's under 7s took a major step forward at the Saracens' tournament on Sunday, emerging with a winning record and in the process registering as joint top try scorers in their group. Pitted in Group B against Amersham & Chiltern, Saracens' Fez Heads, Old Albanians and Harrow, the team put together a string of determined performances on a pitch that turned into a mudbath. The team began with a tough task against a well-drilled Amersham side, but got off to a flyer with Max scoring a great individual try from the first play of the game. With Eleanor captaining the side and Chris Mills coaching, the game continued in an open fashion with both sides scoring some excellent tries. The determination to get a first win on the board was there for all to see when the game was perfectly poised at 5-5 going into the last minute. Maidenhead put together another great move to score the winning try, much to the excitement of the many parents from Maidenhead who turned up to support. The second game against Saracens Fez Heads was an equally tight affair. Jack, Max, Oliver, Owen and Eleanor all put together some great runs and Sammy, Jonathon and Buster made a number of tremendous tags. The defence was really coming together with Mike Wood coaching and we ran out 3-2 winners. We then played the strongest team in the group, Old Albanians. Big and well organised they had won their previous two games convincingly, so we knew we would be in for a tough game. However, the team put in a great performance, with last-ditch defence time after time preventing OAs from scoring. At half time we were 1-0 down but right in the game. Soon after the restart a fantastic move in which each member of the team touched the ball saw Maids go the length of the pitch. Unfortunately Oliver could not quite manage to ground the ball, but it demonstrated the confidence with which we were playing. Near the end Elliot make a fantastic break only for the increasingly slippery ball to slip from his hands when in the clear. The last few minutes saw the strength of OAS show, despite Craig's excellent efforts at organising our defence, and they added three more tries. But the 4-0 scoreline was not reflective of a game we were in for the first three-quarters. Finally we played Harrow, another strong team that only lost narrowly to OAS With the rain falling and the pitch and ball extremely muddy Maids put in their best performance. Jack, Sammy, Alex, Owen and Max all made excellent breaks through the defence and the game became a try fest between two very attacking teams. It was 2-2 at half time, but the Maids came out in the second half and scored three more great tries. Unfortunately we could not hold on and Harrow scored with 30 secs to go to draw the match 5-5. However, by this time Maids had shown that they could play great rugby with all players using sidesteps and skill to beat opponents and passing calmly and intelligently when tagged. Overall it was a very good tournament for the team and a real step upwards in performance and concentration. Results Team |