Alton U9s show true sportsmanship at Cobham Festival

What’s the perfect cure for a disappointing England performance in Cardiff? Alton under 9s turning in 5 outstanding performances in the sunshine at Cobham against some strong sides from Surrey.

The boys started fast against Esher, winning 8-2 with Liam Smith racing in for 4 tries and De Villiers Naude bravely leading the way in tackling those bigger than him. With no rest the next game against Reeds Weybridge was tough, with Reeds edging a thrilling game 4-6 but Alton were a real threat with the turnover ball they created with both Toby Bingham and Alex Levey crossing the line for fine team tries. Next up was one of the hosts 5 teams, Cobham 4 and the boys delivered their finest performance to win 8-2. Oscar Thirlwall was a tackling menace throughout to force countless turnovers and James Greenman barged over for a brace of tries. It also means the editor has bragging rights at work tomorrow as a colleague’s son was on the opposing team! Cobham 3 were a tougher opponent but in another close, end to end encounter the boys kept working hard and narrowly lost 3-4. Zach Hayward, inspired by the Wales back row the day before, thundered into the opposition balls carriers to create real panic and Henry Barttelot demonstrated excellent support play to run in for an fantastic score. The final game against Chobham was another performance full of all the good things the boys have worked on in training this past month, Rory White pulled off the cover tackle of the day and Jake Lloyd ran some fantastic lines in attack to score twice meaning Alton finished on a high with a 6-2 victory.

The tournament organisers awarded cups to those teams that best demonstrated the 5 TREDS values at the festival and from 36 teams taking part Alton were awarded the Sportsmanship cup, a real credit to the way they played and conducted themselves all morning. Finally, the team awards, voted for by the watching Alton parents went to player of the day Liam Smith, for his 10 tries and excellent work rate in defence and tackler of the day Zach Hayward, who made countless big hits against every team he played against.