U11s honoured at the Wasps' Tournament

Sunday 4th April 2010

Maidenhead 4 - 0 Harlow

Maidenhead 1 - 1 Old Bristolians

Maidenhead 7 - 0 Slough

Maidenhead 2 - 3 Worthing

The 15 boys representing the U11s at the London Wasps Easter Tournament played with skill, courage and commitment and were rewarded with a worthy 3^rd place (narrowly missing out on 2^nd place) and the Fair Play trophy (as awarded by the tournament referees). Save for a couple of nasty knee injuries at key moments, who knows how we might have finished.

The first fixture against a larger, but slower, Harlow side saw us ease into the tournament in our customary slow burn fashion and it wasn't until the second half, believing in our own abilities, that our midfield started to use the ball to great effect to run in four unanswered tries; our forwards taking on the bigger Harlow pack and providing good ball.

A harder test came with the game against Old Bristolians who played an open and physical game. Whilst we had chances to win the game, the 1 - 1 draw was probably a fair result.

The game against Slough was our best performance of the day; our forwards engaged at the breakdown to set up a lot of good ball for our confident backs to link across the width of the pitch and with some dynamic running we scored seven tries without reply.

We had a longer break before our key final game with Worthing. Even with the loss of two of our forwards to knee injuries, we started the match with confidence. Within 3 minutes however, their strong pack and fluent back unit had scored two tries and we were on the ropes for the first time in the tournament. But our character prevailed and just before the half-time whistle, and again after the restart, we scored to level at 2-2 and then played some of the rugby we train so hard to achieve each Sunday: brave and effective forward play, providing good clean ball for a talented, quick back line. For a couple of minutes we looked like we would score to win the game but, as tiredness set in, we conceded a late score. Try as we may, we just couldn't level the game.

There is every reason to be encouraged by the performances; the boys tried and succeeded in playing open and skilful rugby, our defence was good as demonstrated by the few tries conceded and above all else, this scratch side quickly played as one team supporting each other well.

Many thanks to all of you and your parents for giving up your Easter Sunday morning.

PS We wish Hugo and Saul a speedy recovery

Squad: Haederle. Payne, Meadows, Lawrie, Warner, Birch, Ward, Curran, McCaffrey, McGregor, Clegg, Jenkins, Hickey, Maclean, Price-Blackburn.

P4 W2 D1 L1

Tries Scored: 14 Tries Conceded: 4