U12s take top prize at Reading Tournament

Sunday 16th October 2011

Maidenhead Rugby Club's Under 12s put in a faultless performance at Sunday's Reading Tournament winning all their matches to take the top prize.

They started slowly against Wallingford with the first third of the match played no more that 5 meters either side of the half way line. In what turned out to be a real battle of the forwards, Maids' forwards Joe Thompson (Captain) and Will Manning scored the tries to win 10-0.

Second game was Newbury who just the week before beat us 20-10 at our tournament. This week it was a different game, the forwards working hard to win ball and releasing to the backs with the winning tries coming from Elliot Thorne and James Ford to give another 10-0 win.

The third game against Swindon looked to be men against boys judging from the size of the Swindon players and the game was another battle against 2 committed sides. Swindon's lightening playmaker was, however, unable to break Maids' resolute defensive line. A flowing move across the pitch involving all members of the team ended with Fraser Miller breaking the Swindon line to score. From the restart, Swindon came incredibly close to breaking our line, but a try saving tackle from Elliot Thorne saw Swindon's heads go down and the game was won 5-0.

Finally, Bracknell who once again we met last week, Maids winning 15-0 on that occasion. Taking to the pitch, the boys were tired but were happy to take an enforced 10 minute delay as, unfortunately, the air ambulance had arrived to airlift an injured player from the next pitch. From the kick off, Maids were dominant against what looked to be another huge team. However, with the winning trophy in their sights, the boys turned on the style easily winning 25-0 with tries from Joe Thompson, Ryan Palihawadana, Elliot Thorne and 2 from Fraser Miller. The day was a huge achievement for the boys with committed forward play, flowing backs and a defence which saw no tries conceded.

Squad: Scott Carey, Ryan Palihawadana, George Kealey, Fraser Miller, Peter Marshall, Philip Wells, Elliot Thorne, Ben Mueller, Eliot Avellano-Khan, James Ford, Joe Thompson (Capt.), Oliver Jones, Matthew Freed, Sean Franks, William Manning, Zac Ruocco-Clarke.

Kieron Franks

Head Coach