Report by Philippa Stahelin
The U9 C team went to Grasshoppers to attempt a clean sweep of Middlesex festivals. They played 3 pool matches;
Vs Grasshoppers – W 6-0 try scorers D.Rubini, 2, A Stahelin, J. Beasley, J. Hammond, J. Carpenter. Against the weakest opposition in the pool they played their best rugby, with some strong tackling and very good handling and passing.
Vs Ealing – W1-0. Try scorer. T.Orchard. This was a physical game but Teddington made it hard for themselves with a lack of passing when tries would have been scored. The passage of play which saw the most passing resulted in the only try.
Vs Rosslyn Park – D 0-0. Again, the passing play which had shone out so well in the first match was lacking and although we dominated the game we didn’t get our wingers involved and drew a game we should have won.
The festival was one pool with the winners and runners up playing each other so we faced Ealing in the final. The game plan was to play quick, passing rugby and use our runners. Unfortunately things didn’t run to plan and with everyone tiring in a very physical game we lost a bit of discipline and reverted to individual play rather than a team effort. We let in 2 fairly soft tries to put us on the back foot and although we got one back shortly before half-time and had the better of the second half we lost 2-1.
There was obvious disappointment at the end from the boys but they had battled well after the bad start and were the stronger overall. But at the end of the day it’s the team playing together who will have more success and I think the squad realised that. As I said, no lack of effort and some fine tries throughout the day, just not enough in the end
