First match against Bracknell, again. A very tough match and both teams fairly even.
A one try win for Bracknell. 5-4
They still have a problem mentally playing Bracknell and this was a real downer for the team.

Second were a team who had travelled over from Wales. Rhiwina. A very strong team, We played our best game of the day against them, always playing catch up. We levelled the score to 5-5 and held on to the final whistle.
Rhiwini went on to win the Final?

Third of the day. A strong Windsor team. A local club to us. We have not played before and they had a few very fast players. We took them on at their own game of straight forward running and it was a close game with Windsor just having the run of play a bit more after a few good turn overs and knock on's by Celler. 7-5 to Windsor.

Last pool game, Devon-port. We had the run off play for most of the game and Devon-port didn't look like they were a match for a much stronger Celler team.

I then told the team try and share the try scoring around a bit to those that hadn't scored.
What followed was some of the best team play i have seen.
Ensuring everyone scored.
On two occasion players going over the try line only to recycle the ball back into play to give the ball to another team mate to score. 7-1 Very well played.

The Celler team worked so hard to win each game and after the first three were so down hearted to have only drawn one. The last game was great as a morale booster for the team, they work hard and made a great team effort to ensure that all players were involved in winning.

Fourth in group so played off against Newbury. Another game with both teams evenly matched. Fatigue and tiredness and the long day were affecting both teams and it showed with both teams making mistakes. Final score 5-5. We share the shield.

Audax

Audax played their first game against Winchester, they showed some great direct running and some excellent tagging. Audax seemed to dominate the game - and the final score of 4-3 to Audax did not tell the full story of the game.

In the next game Audax picked up where they had left off and dominated again against Newbury, with some excellent wing play seeing Audax run out as easy 5-2 winners.

2 hours later...

After a long break in the schedule Audax took to the field against an impressive looking Southend side. Again some excellent tagging reduced the opposition to just 2 tries, whilst Audax worked well as a team to score 4 in a 4-2 victory.

This took us to the final group game - with three teams on 3 wins -the next round of matches in the group would work out the final positions. Audax last group game, with Hungerford fielding their A team in the B tournament - this was always going to be a tough game, and the long break finally caught up with the team.

Before they knew it Audax were 5-1 down and it was half-time. They showed their spirit and team play to win the second-half, but this was not enough to avoid a 7-5 defeat.

On the back of this score Audax were left level on points with Bracknell, who unfortunately had a greater points difference.

This left Audax in the Plate Final against Salisbury - another A team. Again Salisbury started quickly leaving the team to play catch up. Using rolling substitutions in the 2nd half - we were able to keep fresh legs on the pitch, but could not catch up enough and suffered a 5-3 defeat.
The team played very well and worked hard together. Everyone tagged and supported brilliantly and there were some great direct, strong runs from all players.

We are so proud that the teams played so well.
It was a hard decision to split both the Sharks and Tigers.
We are trying to instill a squad mentality, we are not two separate teams, it seemed to work well and it gave the members of the Tigers team something to aim for next season, when anything can happen.
This was a bit of an experiment so that some of the squad could play up a level.
They all showed real commitment, and show that the U8s have strength in depth.
In hindsight the only thing we would have changed was to swap one of the bigger Audax centres for one of the Celler wingers.
As coaches we will keep that in mind for next time.

The Celler et Audax squad was made up of:
Harry Turpin, Ryan Darby, Alistair Glen, Alex Pitfield, Marcus Lampkin,
Josh Ede, Alex Bruce, Harry Herbert, Ben Wilson, Thomas Rutland,
Ryan Adams, Josh Burke, Joseph Lockwood, Finn Bate, Max Jonas,
Harry Keward, Nick Bird, Marcus Bailey, Samuel Paradise, Ben Griffin,
Jacob Watkins.

Thank you also goes to Andy Glen for his reffing of matches.
He is one of the better refs i have seen and plays advantage as much as possible to let the games continue to flow.

Winner of the wine and choc’s goes to Martin Watkins.
Celler et Audax, Swift and Bold, Regimental motto of the 60th Rifles later the KRRC and then the Royal Green Jackets and finally in English only, The Rifles.

The 60th are described as shock troops( Our Centres)
and marksman ( Good Hands for Passing)
who had to get to the front of the line (Try Line)
as fast as possible ( Our Wingers)

David and Neil
Obesus et Antiquus