Abbey Festival

A Great Day for the U8s at Abbey

It was going to be interesting to see how our two teams were going to fair against some very strong opposition teams.

With our two teams of 10 selected it was good to see them all vying for a place on the pitch and not wanting to be substituted. They all show real commitment to playing which is great to see.

Sharks

First up were a strong Abbey side.

They held held us to a draw at our own festival a few weeks ago.
It was a fairly close game with both side managing to turn the ball over by out tagging the opposition.
Final score 6-5 to us.

Second team on the day were Aylesbury.
They fielded the tallest U8 i have ever seen, 5'6''.
One of the parents think they saw him driving himself to the tournament.
Even the team said they thought it unfair as they had a giant on their team.
This wasn't the case and we had the better of them for most of the game, out tagging them when they had possession.
Final score 6-2 to us.

Our third team were Wallingford.
Another unknown team to us.
They were all big lads and seemed to play very aggressive rugby.
Far to much contact for my liking and eventually for the Ref too, he had to pull them up more than once for it.
Even warning the team coach and said that someone was likely to be sent off if it continued.
Half time score 4-0 to them.
With much less aggression and contact in the second half it allowed the Sharks back into the game, they managed to pass the ball out to the wings and out tagged the opposition.
Better team at tag us, not contact yet. Lets hope we play them again next year.
Final score 5-3 to Wallingford.

Our Final team of the day were our local rivals Bracknell.
This was the hardest game of the day.
Both teams have played each other three times this season with Ensians winning all the encounters.
Bracknell were out to get us back for our narrow win at our own festival.
This was a very fast game with a quick succession of tries and some great tagging by both teams.
By half time it was 3 each and all to play for in the second half.
The second half followed on in much the same way as the first with both teams evenly matched.
Turning the ball over to score only for them to do the same. The turning point unfortunately was what everyone thought was a bad reffing decision, the ball was handed out of play from an off side position by Bracknell , only to have the ball giving to Bracknell at the re-start.
This allowed them to go one up on us.
Final score 7-6 to Bracknell.

Pool A results: 1st Bracknell, 2nd Redingensians, 3rd Wallingford, 4th Aylesbury, 5th Abbey.

This was a good placing for the Sharks as most of the games had been close and its good to see that most of the local clubs we compete against are all at about the same level.

Just to show how close it was The Sharks came second on tries scored, if we had won or drawn with Bracknell we would come 1st. Every game counts.

Team
Samuel Paradise, Marcus Bailey. Josh Ede, Ryan Darby, Jacob Watkins, Max Jonas,Harry Keward, Joseph Lockwood, Harry Herbert Thomas Parker Dyer.

All of the team played well and its hard to pick out anyone in particular, but i would just like to say that Joseph Lockwood's tagging skills are remarkable.

Tigers
1st Game, Wallingford.
They have never played before, and we think the Tigers were still asleep in the first half. Wallingford were a very well drilled team and this showed in the final score.
Final score 7-3 to Wallingford

2nd Aylesbury.
Another unknown team but now the tigers had woken up. We had the run of most of the game turned the ball over a few times.
Some great tagging.
Final score 7-4 to us

3rd team Abbey. The tigers have played Abbey earlier in the season but like there A team have come on a long way since. A fairly close game with both teams evenly matched.
Final score 5-4 to Abbey

4th Game Bracknell.
Tigers had played Bracknell twice this season and won both times. They are closely matched teams and it would come down to who could make a break.
With some great tagging we turned the ball over and pushed ahead with Bracknell having to play catch up.
Final score 7-6 to us.

7-6 seems to be the final score with Bracknell most times we play.

Last game, Reading.
Our local club. We have not played this season due to bad weather so this was going to be interesting.
Reading only had one U8s team today so they had a mixed ability team with some very capable players.
This was the best game of the day with both teams tagging well and forcing turnovers.We just stayed on top.
Final score 3-2 to us.

A bit of controversy at the end when the game was scored 3-3 on paper.
The score was being kept by the pitch marshall and not the Ref?
Reading agreed that the score was 3-2

If medals had been involved we would have put in a protest.

Poll B results: 1st Wallingford, 2nd Bracknell, 3rd Aylesbury, 4th Redingensians, 5th Reading, 6th Abbey.

Redingensians actually came 2nd if the correct result had been marked down.

Team
Harry Turpin, Matthew West, Marcus Lampkin, Thomas Rutland, Ben Griffin, Alistair Glen, Alex Bruce, Ryan Adams, Alex Pitfield, Finn Bate.

All of the team played well, but two that stood out for me were Ben Griffin, good strong running and great tagging, Matthew West for a couple good tries and great support play.

Well done to the whole Squad