The last Sunday of March has a number of traditions for many people. For the entire population of the UK it marks the start of British Summer Time and the fact that the clocks move forward by one hour. For a few hundred players, coaches and parents of mini-Rugby on the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border, it means an early start for the annual Abbey Shield tournament. For a subset of the above population (okay just me then!), it traditionally marks the transition point whereby one starts to weans oneself off the winter-fodder of Guinness and migrate to the fruitier pastures of Cider for the summer season.

More on that later, however most importantly, this was an opportunity to collect a trophy that we had not yet won as an age group!

Ensians 10 - 0 Wallingford

The game started at a decent tempo with Alex Canham catching a defensive kick from the Wallingford full-back and setting off on an attacking run that was to set the tone for the rest of the day. Passing the ball wide to Liam, he too gained significant yards on the firm Abbey pitches before being well tackled for a Wallingford line out. Big Jack secured the take and set up a pacey move across the backs for Alex Canham to jink in and secure our first try and settle the nerves.

Wallingford were clearly no mugs and despite not being the most physical side, could certainly move the ball along the back line. The pace and accuracy of their handling was a pleasure to watch and something to recall for future jousts against them. The Oxford side were starting to stretch the Ensians defence now and a clever box-kick from Alex Crocker brought some respite from the pressure on our goal line.

The forwards were slowly starting to dominate, particularly in the scrum where the front row of Conor, Charlie and Zak were magnificent. Relentless in the rucks and mauls, they went about securing the platform for the backs to build from. With Ensians starting to pile on the pressure, half-time came possibly at the wrong moment as a second try would have made the world of difference to the game and settled the boys for what was likely to be a long day.

With Wallingford recommencing the match, they made their intentions known with some further impressive displays of fine running rugby. The Ensians defence, however, looked rock solid with the entire team tackling with commitment - epitomised by Samuel Palmer who was having an excellent start to the day, pressurising the Wallingford pack and half-backs at every opportunity.

With only one try in it, the anxiety was growing on the touchline as Wallingford set off again at pace along their magnificent back-line. Thomas Strasburger was first to stop them with a thundering tackle, quickly followed by Jack Knobben shutting the door on their second phase and turning the ball over. Ensians were starting to capitalise on Wallingford's inability to breach our defence and you could sense a further score. A mazy run and pass from Thomas George put Liam in the clear to make yards and releasing a well-timed, but marginally high pass, resulting in a knock-on by Alex Canham.

With our forwards able to turn the ball over from the resultant scrum, some quick ball through the hands of Ben, Will and Alex Canham saw TG released to run the ball home and seal the game with a spectacular diving try.

10-0 to Ensians. A hard-fought and well-earned result, but an excellent display from a very capable and sporting side in Wallingford. More was to come from them later!

Ensians 5 - 5 Bracknell

Second game up and the Ensians took on Bracknell of whom we know a lot about and have put to the sword in recent encounters. The manner in which Wallingford were beaten seemed to settle the nerves, as we started with good intent and had the ball doing our bidding. Bracknell were clearly up for this game as the tackling was ferocious and getting the Ensians scalp today was obviously on their agenda.

With the ball getting wide early on, excellent runs from Alex Canham and Liam were halted by meaty tackles and the touchline - ensuring that bath time that night involved a pair of tweezers and a good dollop of Germolene!

The early bouts were going Ensians way and the lads were making yards. A penalty short of the Bracknell line was quickly tapped and Alex Canham tried a neat dart to exploit a partial gap in the defence but was well tackled. Going to ground, he recycled the ball well for Charlie Perry to try a similar move with great body-positioning. Again Bracknell shut the door with intensity and Cheesie tried his luck by going wide. A good run was stopped short of the try line by the Bracknell defence spotting the intent and covering well by pushing Thomas into touch.

The resultant line out was well won by Big Jack setting up a new wave of attack for Alex Canham to brilliantly breach the defence and ground the ball. Unfortunately for Ensians the pitch markings were a bit confusing and he touched down short of the actual try-line.

The intensity of the game was starting to tell and our boys were becoming agitated at not scoring. Some verbal contempt was creeping into the game and was beginning to turn the referee and a bruised and frustrated Alex Crocker saw the Ensians penalised ten-yards near our try-line for a breach of discipline.

The half-time whistle came at the right time and gave the coaches an opportunity to cool the heads and make some changes.

George Russell came on at scrum-half and ably set about connecting the possession gained by our forwards with the backline. A superb move originating from Ben saw him set-up Will and Cheesie for a perfectly timed pass to TG who scored the first try of the match and his second of the day.

This seemed to galvanise our Bracknell opponents who re-started the match with a renewed intensity that seemed to catch us by surprise. We were having to make some big tackles in defence, but as we turned again into attack, the Bracknell defensive tackling at the breakdown was ferocious and knocking us off our rhythm. This is something that we have observed against Brighton and Cobham in the recent past and there is something missing in our game against uber-aggressive opponents at the breakdown where we seem unable to secure quick-ball as efficiently as our opponents.

A series of Bracknell penalties were awarded for marginally high-tackles again handing the momentum to our opponents. From the second phase of play on the third penalty, the Bracknell backs breached our valiant defence and scored a game-changing try that clearly meant the world to them and their coaches.

There was plenty of commitment from our lads in this game, however one could not help but think we lost our cool and momentum at times. We were a bit off the pace in terms of running across the backs and we were clearly rattled by a combination of the ferocity of our opponents at the breakdown and our interpretation of some of the decisions being made by the Ref.

Not a bad result, but our ultimate destiny in this tournament may be down to someone else now. Our focus was now to score lost of tries on the next few matches!

Ensians 20 - 0 Reading

An attacking line-up was selected for this derby match against Reading having been given a brief to score tries.

A well taken catch by TG from kick-off secured possession and set-up a tidy series of play across the back-line before breaking down short of the Reading line. The forwards were already making a nuisance of themselves against a physically smaller opposition pack and as the ball came to Joseph he released Liam with an excellent pass and he hared down the left-hand wing. His run came to an end as we was inched towards the touch-line and was caught short by a lack of supporting players.

The resulting line-out was secured by Reading who unfortunately could not retain possession as they knocked on. A magnificent scrum by our pack put us on the forward foot and George Russell sniped am opportunistic try.

The ball was increasingly being held by Ensians hands and some fine passages of play were observed but were crucially not capitalised upon by either knocking-on or forward passes. TG was having a fine day and inspiring his team-mates from both hand and boot. His well-timed pass to Alex Canham set him up on one of his mazy runs which unfortunately came to nothing when his final choice was to retain the ball when a straightforward pass to Will or TG might have been more profitable. The move broke down and Reading infringed in the ruck that followed giving away a penalty. A quick, lateral pass to Zak caught the Reading defence by surprise allowing our big-hearted prop to burst through and score an excellent try.

With half-time likely to have been welcomed more by Reading, the message was clear to our boys - keep your heads and maintain the pace and momentum.

The match restarted in similar fashion to the first half by our forwards securing lots of ball for the backs to run at will (small 'w'). A crisp series of passes allowed Joseph to take possession, jink and jive his way through the opposition, jink and jive his way across the goal line and then jink and jive his way over the dead-ball line before grounding the ball in text-book fashion two metres too far!

The message to the boys at half-time was clearly working and TG was the heart-beat of the side today. A wonderful kick-run-bounce-catch try was outstandingly executed by our full-back and a pleasure to watch. The lads were running rampant now and wave upon wave of Blue and White attack was a sight to behold. A final try was always likely to happen before full-time and sure enough Alex Canham ran home a beauty to seal the match and push-up the ever important try-count.

A stylish performance against a solid and improving Reading team who made us work hard for it in the early stages.

Ensians 15 - 0 Reading Abbey

At the half-way point, having played three, won two, drawn one with seven tries scored and only one conceded, one might have been forgiven for thinking that we were firmly on track. Bracknell were going well in their matches and filled with the knowledge that they were due to play Wallingford in their final fixture, we had no choice but to continue to focus on our own performance and rack up as many tries as possible between now and then.

The boys couldn't have got off to a better start against the hosts. A high, hanging kick from TG was followed up with impressive advancement by Ensians, immediately turning-over the ball, popping it wide for Alex Canham to run in another great try.

A well caught catch by Liam straight from kick-off allowed for good yards to be made before a solid tackle and offload to Zak in support. The move broke down but recycled ball eventually found its way to Will who cut inside and gradually moved the ball forward by staying on his feet when going to ground may have exposed gaps in the Abbey defence. The momentum was rebuilt via Ben, who set up Alex Crocker to release Liam for a fast charge down the touchline. A cracking, last minute tackle prevented a sure-fire try and the wallop onto the hard pitched put Liam out of the tournament for the next hour or so!

The fantastic work by the forwards kept supplying quality ball to the back line and further pacey moves being ably set up by Ben allowed for a missed pass and TG to run in our second try.

After a quick break for injuries, again forward domination allowed for Crocker to present good ball to Ben who released Will who rode a couple of tackles with relative ease before running in our third score of the game and defeating the hosts for the day.

Ensians 25 - 0 Newbury

We were expecting a potentially difficult game against a Newbury side that we hadnâ€™t played too often in the recent past. The first psychological strike went to Ensians, by us presenting them with our bibs to wear due to the colour clash of jerseys.

With TGâ€™s kick being knocked-on straight from kick-off by Newbury, a fantastic effort in the resultant scrum by our forwards, ably put the ball in Alex Crockerâ€™s devastating hands. The resultant move was pure theatre and like the â€˜Time-warpâ€™ scene from the â€˜Rocky Horror Picture Showâ€™ - was unique, original and brilliantly executed:

â€œEspley moves the ball to the left,
Canham brings back to the ri-ii-ii-iight.
Goes to ground from the maul,
But gives Crocker great sight.
Quick hands from second-pha-aa-ase. Luke Godward makes a â€˜Boltâ€™ like â€˜Usa-aaâ€”aa-ainâ€™
Try for the â€˜En-sians a-ga-aa-aa-in!â€

A fantastic reward for Luke who is as committed player as you will find in the minis section.

The quick score from Ensians seemed to settle the nerves and you could sense that the boys were well up for it. An intelligent â€˜high-passâ€™ by Zak Abnett was a particular highlight of the plays that followed which allowed Will to ably gather, by-pass traffic and make significant yards from.

The Newbury lads werenâ€™t going to roll over and knew that we needed to score trys. Some fierce rucks and mauls featured in the next passage of play and Big Jack managed to pick up and set-off on a fantastic run before taking contact, popping to Ben, off-load to Will and a well-timed pass to Joseph to score our second in the corner.

Two tries to the good at half-time meant we were in control of the game but still chasing more scores. Our fullback, Alfred â€˜TGâ€™ Hitch-kick, gathered the ball straight from kick-off and set off on one of his runs. Quick ball from maul allowed for a classic move along the Backs to send in Joseph for his second try of the game.

Newbury were refusing to lie down and really took the game to Ensians for the ensuing minutes. Some sensational defence was a real pleasure to watch and slowly but surely you saw our boys gain the upper-hand again.

A kick from defence by TG put the ball into loose play and a truly stunning pick-up, jinking run and finish from Alex Canham was probably the individual try of the day.

In the final move of the game an excellent piece of quick thinking from a tap penalty by George Russell saw a missed pass from Ben Espley allow Alex Canham to bag another try and finalise the result via an outstanding individual display from that particular fine young man.

Ensians 20 - 0 Swindon

In the final match, the coaches and boys were clear that we had to again win in style and concentrate our efforts in managing our own game, rather than worry about what Bracknell were doing to the opposition.

A great, hanging, kick off from TG soon, however, found its way back towards the Ensians try line and heavy pressure caused some nervousness along our backs before we eventually knocked-on. A strong scrum went against the head and worked its way along the backs whilst all the time gaining ground. A strong dart and run from Thomas Strasburger saw him almost score and in the broken-down move, Will managed to secure possession and score in the corner.

There seemed to be a great deal of nervousness in this game as careless errors were littering the game and a series of knock-ons were unsettling the performance following periods of good front-row possession from Zak, Conor and Ben House.

A major strop from one of our more experienced players (clue: - he likes to hitch-kick), however when he knocked-on seemed to exorcise whatever was causing these mistakes and we started to settle down and start handling more diligently. Good forward possession allowed for Crocker to release Ben who ran outside the Inside Centre and pass to Alex Canham for another great try with Liam ably supporting play.

The flood gates seemed to open at this point and Ensians moved to a different level of combat, possession, running and handling as they started to run riot. Ben scored an intelligent try from first phase followed almost immediately by a strong run-in and try from TG following a long-pass from Will electing to miss out Alex Canham (who had scored plenty by then anyway!)

The final move of the match, and indeed our tournament that day was to come from Will who scored from a move originating from behind the scrum.

Conclusion

The boys and coaches had delivered their side of the performance today by winning five of the six matches and drawing one - scoring 19 tries and conceding only 1. The final outcome was going to depend on how Bracknell got on against Wallingford. The entire Ensians U11 ensemble gathered to watch the final match and sportingly cheer on the Oxfordshire side whom we enjoyed playing in our opener. In a hard-fought encounter, Wallingford defeated Bracknell meaning that our boys had won their age group in this tournament for the first time. An outstanding achievement from an outstanding group of young men. Following the presentation of trophy and medals, a few pints of Strongbow were procured by Richard and shared by the Dads to celebrate this fine victory.
A very, very satisfying outcome for all concerned and with a glass of Cider to toast it â€“ what a great way to consume one of your â€˜five-a-dayâ€™ too!