An early start on Sat 22nd March saw 22 players from Alton U11’s travelling up to the Landrover Cup being hosted by the London Irish Community team at their training ground at Hazlewood. Playing Ready 4 Rugby rules, we saw some fabulously high octane and competitive matches with the play barely pausing without the requirement for scrums. This tested fitness levels for players, referees and spectators alike with the handling and support play being electric from our Alton boys.

Alton Blacks

The team split into 2 even sides with the Blacks taking on Barnes in their opening fixture in a close game. After the first few minutes of shell shock Alton Blacks bounced back in good order to win the second half but ultimately just left themselves too much to do to win the game. Next up was Windsor who were put to the sword in quick order by an Alton team firing on all cylinders. Some incisive running from Sid, Zach H and Jake and some excellent grubber kicking into space by Teddy led to 4 unanswered tries. Bracknell were next in line for Alton Black’s 3rd match without a break, this was a typically ding dong affair with some brilliant handling and huge character as the boys dug deep to edge a narrow win with Max, Rory, Henry, Toby and Adam all working hard to support in attack but crucially to organise themselves in defence. After a game’s break Alton Blacks were up for their final match against a strong London Irish team. Whilst this proved to be a game to far for our boys who’d worked incredibly hard for each other the boys fought until the final whistle with Archie and Alex in particular leading by example and lifting their teammates when they needed it most.

Alton Reds

The day for the reds started off against Barnes and the opposition started quickly and scored a try within the opening few minutes.
Our boys were quick to respond and Harry broke the line and although he was tagged once he had support from Zac to finish off a great move. The two teams were evenly matched and Barnes struck back to regain the lead before Liam put the ball down to level the game again at 2-2. It was now Alton’s turn to take the lead. After five successful phases moving up the pitch by passing the ball confidently through hands, James Manning kicked the ball to avoid the turnover and finished the move by scoring the try. Barnes quickly struck back levelling the game after a determined piece of defending from Alton. Throughout the game James Carmichael and Max ran their socks off, tagging everyone who came near them ensuring every metre that Barnes gained was very hard earnt.

The reds second game was another end-to-end battle with the lead being exchanged several times. Our defence evolved throughout the game and the work-rate was extremely high from all the boys in both attack and defence.
Zac & Oscar scored and Max had one try disallowed but Hammersmith pipped us in the final few minutes to win 3-2.

After a short break we were treated to a 13 try classic against London Irish. Our opposition were a well-drilled team who put us under significant pressure throughout the game. Irish took an early lead but Alton never stopped fighting, notably a great break from the Alton 22 by Arthur and a great off-load set Zac up to score a powerful try. Towards the end of the game James Manning stepped up and cut through their defence to score Alton’s fifth try.

The final game of the tournament was against Maidenhead and you could see the boys applying everything they had learnt in the other three games.
Straight from the restart William made a scything run through their defence taking one tag but had Zac on his shoulder to score the try. George showed great tenacity fighting for the ball on the ground after a dropped ball from Maidenhead and ultimately set William up to score the final try of the game to take the win 4-2.

What a joy to be back playing competitive rugby against proper opposition! Our thanks must go to the London Irish Community team for organising such a slick tournament and for the fabulous spirit with which all the Alton U11’s players played their part.

Next season is already starting to look very promising.