U10s - Tournament review

Sunday 11th October 2009

Maidenhead U10 Stags
Fresh from a challenging tournament at Chobam the previous week, it was time for the Maidenhead Stags to return to home turf to fight with guts and might against the stern opposition of Wallingford, Henley, Newbury, Brighton and Harrow.

First up was Wallingford; a team of huge stature. This did not phase the boys. They showed excellent skill in moving the ball away from the opposition under their Captain and scrum half Anthony Brayshaw. Daneal lost his gum shield and nearly his teeth in his determination to gain forward play momentum and the team defended with fantastic courage to end the match 0-0, never allowing the push of the Wallingford forwards to win through.

Next up was Henley, our local rivals. We had nothing to fear. Fantastic ball moving skills allowed the backs to release their speed and Henley did not look as if they had turned up for the match against the speed of wingers Samuel Riches and James Ford. We won 1-0.

The Newbury players marched onto the pitch for the third match looking confident of a win. This did not perturb our warriors under the determined Captaincy of Matthew Freed. Matthew directed his forwards to provide the ball and skilfully moved the ball to centre Alex McEwan. His play was penetrative through the Newbury line supported effectively by Philip Wells and we were able to release the ball to our wingers Oscar and James who enjoyed fantastic runs against our opposition. The game was exciting and finished 2:1 to the Stags, a well deserved victory!

Next came Brighton. George Hickey, our Hooker played fantastically straight balls into the line-out. His front row team mates Thomas and Daneal fought as hard as they could against superior opposition to try to gain a platform for our backs. Brighton were able to move the ball effectively out to their wingers and Samuel defended with courage against the onslaught. We played fantastically well against this well drilled team, but Brighton just got the better of us.

Last was Harrow. They looked massive according to Matthew and even all the food Philip had managed to consume throughout the day could not make him grow as tall as some of the Harrow boys! Matthew Hine moved the ball through pick-and-go to pick-and -go, trying to penetrate their front line from a low position of attack. Alec and Samuel tried to gain ground from the centre but the size and determination of the Harrow defence held us back. We defended well against the strength of the rolling attack and maybe the 50th burger of the day had allowed Philip to hold our ground, but eventually we succumbed to the might of the Harrow players. The Stags had a fantastic day of rugby and played with guts, skill and passion.

All parents and coaches are full of pride with the spirit and way everyone played.

Maidenhead U10 Bulls
An excellent and spirited squad effort saw the Maidenhead U10 Bulls keep an unbeaten record throughout their home tournament.

As the Autumnal weather lifted across Braywick Park, a thrilling opener set the scene with a dynamic Bulls 3-0 win against local rivals Henley Hawks.

Our next game was an unfortunate draw against Maidenhead U10 Wolves. The scrum was dominated by the Bulls with Big Ben Mueller and Thomas Osborne holding firm and gaining much ground. Despite a breakaway try from the Wolves, the Bulls came back with a thrilling display of back play seeing Thomas Moore make a searing break for the line from his own half. Mark Freed, the Wolves Coach, was allegedly heard to say afterwards "The 500 Rand I donated to the Ref was well worth it, even if he missed tripping up Moore twice".

Two more 1-1 draws in tough fought out games with Wallingford and Harrow followed - notably through some rampaging runs by Oliver Jones and Ben Williams, excellent incisive passing and running by Jack Isacke, Aran Wellman and Charlie Laing, and the quick thinking and finishing skills of Lewis Hughes. Zaccaria Ruocco Clark contributed well with some excellent tackling - those Friday Judo lessons are paying off!

All in all an excellent squad effort.

The final tally being one win and three draws - with a try count of 6-3 on the day.

Try scorers: William Manning (2), Thomas Osborne, Lewis Hughes, Oliver Jones and Thomas Moore.

Further independent and impartial comments re The Bulls vs Wolves Match:
Some would say The Bulls were mugged and our villainous opponents The Wolves are, I hear, changing their strip next season for stripy black and white shirts and facemasks. We might have known something like this would happen. After all, the Wolves' kit bag did have Swag written on it in great big letters and I'm sure I caught a glimpse of a couple of South African crowbars lurking within. But as we kicked off in the bright October sunshine (before the downpour), it really looked as if the Bulls were going to get that second win of the Tournament. Mr Freed later admitted over a cool iron replenishment drink "I was relieved when the final whistle blew early".

Some say a draw was the worst result possible, some say it was a fix, we'd just like to say what an excellent match we saw played out by the Bulls and Wolves - Boys, all be very proud of yourselves.