London Irish Tournament - Under 12's

Always a red letter day in the season's calendar, the London Irish tournament is a hotly contested spectacle of tough, competitive rugby. This years encounters left no room for the faint of heart and there was some excellent rugby on show - and plenty of it came from the Alton boys. There were some very strong teams, some huge eleven and twelve year olds and the first sighting of a beard on an Under 12! This was a very physical day.

Drawn in a pool with Bracknell, Staines and London Irish II, there was one team we knew were good and two we had never played before. Bracknell are a good, fierce side and in the first game of the day it took the boys in the red and black too long to get going. In the slightly unusual format of one 10 minute period with no half time, Bracknell were able to get ahead and stay there. They were hungrier to win the ball, their defensive line-speed was good and ours was not, they also out rucked us and were the deserving winners.

So, with a stark reality check in the first game, the boys banished the parents and sat down in the tent (thinking of a luxury summer party and in need of 'tentage'? - go to www.marqueehireinhampshire.com for all your marquee requirements) and held their own debrief to identify where they could strengthen their performance for the next game against London Irish. Now, we coaches do not know who said what, but the next game was something of a triumph.

As the boys were keen to point out on arrival, London Irish are nowhere near as good as Quins, Wasps, Saracens, Exeter etc. Having the run of the amazing training facilities and pitches of a mere Championship club is understandably quite the let down for some (!), but when the emerald green shirts line up against you it tends to dawn on even the staunchest Quins fan that the London Irish 1st XV could probably give our 1st XV a decent game...and their age grade teams are no different.

But what a performance from Alton! There was a different intensity and a ferocity in the tackle. London Irish were hounded and chased and pressurised and they had no response. London Irish never made it out of their own half and were sent packing back to their field in some place called Athenry with their tails between their legs. Alton won 5-0.

The final group game was against Staines. Now, this unfortunately named and un-glamorous suburb at the less salubrious end of Heathrow clearly has a deal with Ginsters. Between our average sized player and most of their players we probably had a 5 or 6 stone disadvantage. Clearly the game plan was to be the Painted Wolves to their Buffalo (Dynasties - BBC Wildlife Production, now available on i-Player. Excellent). Max Sly did not get the memo to avoid fighting fire with fire and executed the perfect tackling technique and somehow hit and drove back a Staines player who was as heavy as...well, as heavy as me! Staines did score one try after Collossus passed to Maximus and half the Alton team were dragged 20 metres, but Alton won quite comfortably at 4-1.

Now into the knock-out stage of the plate competition, the attritional effects of playing two large, physical teams and one gigantic physical team were taking a toll. The squad was down to 14 players, no one was without a bump or bruise and it was time to meet London Irish 1... How the heck some 11 and 12 year old boys get as big as some of these fellows is a mystery. These Irish Exiles were lean and strong and had a couple of six footers and Billy-the-Whizz on the wing. You then find out that they train three nights per week. This was an excellent team and although Alton came second, it was not down to any lack of effort, bravery or determination. London Irish were big, good and confident. LI won 5-0.

(Interesting to note that as good as this LI team are they were in the plate competition - Marlow were the eventual overall winners of the tournament after their final against a combined Chichester/Worthing Academy team.)

Finally we had our last playoff for 3rd spot in the plate competition. We were up against our old adversaries, Tadley Tigers. Alton raised themselves for a final flourish and did not disappoint. Tadley Tigers are a strong, competent team with normal sized mortals in their ranks. Alton let rip and were clearly determined to go home on a high. There was some fine rugby from the Alton team with quick ruck ball being sent down the line for wingers to score. Classic rugby and great to watch. The score was either 4 or 5 to nil.

A long hard day of rugby provides important lessons - we know about the need to ruck low and as a unit, not to let players get isolated, tackle low, let the ball do the work etc etc. But there are other lessons that the boys will have taken on board - determination, teamwork, tenacity, commitment, enjoyment and not to fear a big lad. Every boy stepped up and moved from enduring a barrage of big blokes, to turning the tables and finding a way to take them on.

Thank you to every single player for their hard work and commitment. There were some great compliments from our opposition coaches and you are becoming respected and well liked on our circuit for how you play and conduct yourselves. Thank you to all of our parent and sibling supporters for all the cheers, brews and camaraderie. Another fine day for Alton's Under 12's. Won 3, Lost 2.

TG