Winchester U12 Invitational A and B Festival

The nature of the tournament dictated that we pick an A and a B team but this is becoming more and more difficult as our boys develop.

First off the B division team:

The B-team under the guidance of the dream team triumvirate of John, Al and Al romped through the group until a difficult game against Havant, one of the biggest under-12 side’s I’ve seen! The boys stuck at it with some committed tackling but ultimately Havant’s size told and we went down 2-0 and finishes second overall.

I have to say that the last third place play-off game against Eastleigh was fantastic. It was obvious that the boys had gelled as a team, backs and forwards stuck to their roles and the net result was a really disciplined, well organised team effort culminating in great running rugby and a thoroughly dominant 3-0 win. Congratulations to the boys and coaches for a brilliant performance.

Next to the A-division.

In truth the team was misfiring a little during the day with moments of great play interspersed with indisciplined play that made it difficult to get into a groove. Having said this, the team has a great team ethic and much like England of old, we ground out victories that were relatively comfortable without playing the sort of rugby that I know the lads are capable of. The last game of the group was against a very strong Chichester side who we don’t get the chance to play v often. They were at the top of their game and we showed only flashes of what we can do. Unfortunately we went down to a 4-0 defeat. The Chichester game was the boys last game as N Milton, due to a combination of injuries and their desire to get back to the coast in time for the England game meant that we didn’t play a third place play-off. The boys showed enough over the day to leave me thinking the boys have got better and better over the season. I expect them to click again over the next few weeks and there’ll be no stopping them.

In summary, the whole squad of boys acquitted themselves really well. Well done boys and well done coaches - a great tournament.