U9s Lions & Tigers roaring at Brean Sands

2nd - 3rd May 2009
 
 

Maidenhead U9s Wrap up first year of contact - Brean Sands Tour

The Brean Sands rugby festival is played over two days and attracts teams from right across England, Wales and Ireland. The Under 9s section saw Maidenhead pitted against tough opposition in a round-robin format, with the top team from Pool A and Pool B progressing to the final.

Maidenhead Lions
The Maidenhead Lions took to the pitch, with expectations that fitted a team with little experience of playing with each other, but in the second half stuck down two tries to take two well deserved points. First half was very evenly matched, against Hertford with the Lions working on their driving and trying to link the passing. However, the second half was just brilliant. Some great driving, good linking and two magnificent tries by Fraser Miller and Philip Wells. We had 'put our marker down'.

With a good opener under their belts, the second game was against the Terenure Chiefs. The Lions scored convincingly in the first half, with a superb drive over the line by Philip Wells with a huge effort behind him, helping him across the line. Most of the game was played in the Chiefs' half, during some terrific driving where the Lions had the ball held up twice by the Chiefs, once over the try line and on a third occasion knocked into touch, just short of the line. Unfortunately, a slight lack in concentration by the Lions, allowed the Chiefs to escape from their try line and run the ball down the pitch to score. This left the game a draw and the Lions with a single point when really they should have had the two points for a win.

The third game against Redingensians was a great game of rugby. Fraser Miller put in the opening try, with some terrific side stepping and sheer pace. Matthew Hine followed with a second, 3 metres out, ball in hand, head down, his only focus being to put the ball over the line. Liam Talbot then made it a third, with a run that puts Linford Christie to shame, with Fraser Miller finishing off with a magnificent fourth. All the boys came off the pitch, truly elated, as were the coaches. The days effort meant that the Lions went into Sunday, one point off the leaders, the Terenure Crusaders (from Dublin) who hadn't lost a single match.

Sunday came and with it some interesting ways in which to decide what team should start the game. Tossing the coin was too conventional. We had throwing the linesman's flag, arm wrestling and a drinking competition between two Dads. If Rugby ever falls out of favour for Matthew Hine, then he may want to consider the Javelin, based on two out of two successful throws. The Lions started very well on Sunday, again playing some great rugby taking the Cwmbrans for two magnificent tries by Fraser Miller and Matthew Hine. The team was firing on all four cylinders, even bringing out some emotional moments for the coaches. However, In order to stand a chance of winning the pool, the Lion's needed to win the last game against the undefeated Terenure Crusaders.

Full of anticipation and hope, the Lion's now found themselves up against the favourites. The Crusaders quickly opened the scoring, with the Lion's unfortunately, caught napping. The Lions suddenly woke and a tough game ensured with the Crusaders team consisting of boys with good pace and able to move the ball very quickly. However to everyone's delight, Fraser Miller broke through with speed and agility to level the score. Then unfortunately, a few minutes before full time, the Crusaders took a quick penalty (referee!), a few metres from our line and scored. The net result being that the Lions were now second in the pool and now playing for the Plate.

The Plate competition saw the Lions playing the runner up of Pool B, which happened to be Old Rutlishians. With a gap of around 3 hours between matches, the Lions started slowly. The Old Rutlishians scored quickly in the first half. Attack was clearly the strategy for the second half and attack the Lions did. The second half was spent rucking and driving and the boy's put a huge effort in to try and pull the game back, but unfortunately the Lions lost by one try, taking home the runners up plate and 4th overall in the U9s competition out of 12 teams.

It was a terrific display of rugby and team spirit. All the boys played exceptionally well, giving 100 percent in the games and for the club and emerging from the weekend as stronger rugby players and friends. Thanks to the coaches and the organisers for a great weekend. Burnham-On-Sea RFC put on a great event, which was extremely well managed.

Maidenhead Lions: Matthew Hine (Captain), Philip Wells, Fraser Miller, Sean Franks, George Kealey, Liam Talbot, Oscar Ainscough, Anthony Brayshaw, Alec McEwen, Tom Moreland.
 
 

Maidenhead Tigers
Game 1 - At precisely 1200 we kicked off against the Old Rutlishians. By half-time we were 4-0 down - rutting was certainly the 'Old Ruts' game - and we were being over-powered by a large and very physical team. It's a well known fact that stags run better up-hill - and another that our boys always re-group, let out a defiant cry and never give up. The 2nd half was extremely competitive - with our Tigers battling and enjoying much more possession and territory. Some excellent running, and unlucky not to trouble the numerous scorers. Old Ruts scored one more to end this 0-5.

Game 2 - Highly refreshed, focused and much more aware of the quality of the opposition, the Tigers took to the field at 1300. Dartfordians were soon to witness the Tigers hunting in packs, mauling superbly, and unleashing many excellent running backs' moves - that saw great flowing ball movement, with everyone contributing and fully involved. James Ford opened the Tigers account by darting down the line and he doubled his tally late on. In the 2nd half Lewis Hughes sprinted over to double the lead. The Tigers were now uncaged, and even with no Mud around Thomas Moore then had the appreciative crowd singing 'we really loved your tiger feet' by beating several players, to setup an another excellent back move that resulted in Samuel Riches diving over from a Hughes pop pass near the line. The boys had won 4-1 and then gorged on raw meat - well local burgers and hot dogs.

Game 3 - Maybe the wait was too long until 1500 but the final match of the day against eventual overall winners Altrincham Kersals saw us lose a great match 1-0. The boys tackled superbly with especially Thomas May, Daneal Collins and Jack Isacke leading the fight. Altrincham had travelled far and weren't to be denied, and as several injuries took their toll on our boys (we went down to 7 players) they scored. The brave Tigers battled on ferociously and nearly levelled late on - but it wasn't to be.

The boys had fought well all day, showed a true never say die attitude - and had thoroughly bonded well as a true team.

Game 4 - They breed them big in Dublin we thought. Well actually that's true, but they also run their age groups from July to June - hence many of their boys were proportionally much older and larger than ours. The Tigers seem to be continuing the Maids' tradition of not being large - but extremely speedy. Again the slow starting Tigers seemed to suffer from late morning Tiger-like drowsiness, as the Irish boys powered in. A couple of mistakes saw us 2-0 down at half-time, but having pulled the Tigers' tails, the boys reacted superbly to win the 2nd half well 2-1 with storming tries from Hughes and Ford. Matthew Freed was directing the play well at scrum-half, with Samuel Riches and Sami Colborne continuing to contribute well. Williams was also revelling in the tough battles. A 3-2 defeat - but the Irish were extremely relieved to have held out our many late onslaughts - to be sure by the sea shore.

Game 5 - The other Terenure team in our group, the Stormers. This club brought 4 teams - and we seemed to be matched against the 2 best. Another tough match and another great team performance by the Tigers. The boys really played for each other and again all contributed despite more injuries. It was as if Samuel Riches was being darted to slow him down. Again some ferocious forward play from May, Collins and Williams, and more nifty footwork from Moore and Hughes in particular. A 2-0 loss, but another 'tail' of what could have been.

Maidenhead Tigers: Lewis Hughes, Matthew Freed, Thomas Moore, Samuel Riches, Daneal Collins, Thomas May, James Ford, Ben Williams, Sami Colborne, Jack Isacke.