HRFC Under 8’s Ealing Festival Report - October 2009
With some of our players coming into their third season at Harpenden, our age group finally made it onto the Podium for the first time when our B team took a fantastic third place in the tournament. From tears of anguish at 2.20pm (after losing the semi-final) we had tears of joy by 3 O’Clock (on the parent’s faces) as the team romped to victory in the 3rd place play-off.
It all began on a cool overcast morning with tired Dads n Mums hauling their rugby prodigies south to the Hanger Lane and the joys of London parking. Once all had done the half-mile march with the heavy gear we set up camp under a gazebo, which gradually collapsed in height as the day progressed. Our first match kicked off at 10.20 with the B team firing up an encouraging start with a 3:2 victory over Wasps. A brace from Arthur Garret supplemented by one from Daniel James pulled the team through, what turned out to be, our weakest defensive performance on the day. The A’s then had their turn with Wasps and bolted away into a free scoring match, where we somehow got ourselves pinned back to a 3:3 draw.
The coaches then put some between game time into defensive alignment and a bit of selective rush tagging at restarts. This started to really pay-off in the latter games. Tony Birch, his booming voice dripping with regret after numerous disallowed tries, ran a drill on scoring tries with one step. Next up for the B’s it was our dear nemesis OA’s. Despite a close 2:2 first half, the opposition tactics of enveloping our ball carrying player and first receiver threw off our attacking spirit, and OA’s won 3:5. On the pitch alongside, the A team faced Ealing (the eventual winners by a long way). A closely fought first half kept us level 2:2, however that random “demon” of any festival - a rugby enthusiast lost on the pitch posing as a ref - left us seething as off-sides, knock-ons, and over-running of 3 steps after tagging, allowed Ealing to get away to win 2:4. Your honourable correspondent needed to be tied down afterwards!
Spirits were quickly lifted by 2 outstanding performances. The B team took on a very mobile London Welsh. An incredible tagging performance saw our boys averaging 4-5 tags each. With plenty of turnovers Harpenden soon dominated the match. Our dear speedster William Barford now discovering the joys of passing to teammates stormed away to a hat-trick. The pick of the bunch coming from a fabulous line break by Murray Wilson supplemented by his wonderful long pass (as trained under the auspicious coaching of Mr Carl Peter & Friends) to William running at full pace across the defensive line and into the corner. You could hear his Mum shouting “YES” from the A40.
The A’s had to win their final match against a strong Ruislip team. After falling behind in the first half, the team surged to their best performance of the day with brilliant tagging winning turnovers from which Charlie, Harry J, and Henry surged like demons to score tries. Up the middle Glenn, Harry M, Jack and Tigger were opening up the spaces for the runners. But if there’s one man ya need to count on it’s Gerry O’Brien. Running through gaps all morning like he was made of vapour the opposition couldn’t seem to get a hand on him. With the final play Gerry danced over the line only to be adjudged to have taken 2 steps after been tagged. This condemned us to a 5:5 draw and the A’s were out! You could see how hard all 10 of the boys had worked with the steam coming off their backs at the end of the game, like a proper rugger team. But sadly, they were all homeward bound but undoubtedly fit to fight another day.
After lunch the excitement of a semi-final against Ealing awaited the B team. Again an amazingly committed defensive performance was backed up with superb running, not least with Daniel James dancing through the entire opposition for a touchdown. Once again William was on hand like an Alan Clarke impersonator (one for all ye 1970’s Leeds United fans) to hatch 2 tries. But Ealing were too strong with some electric, short (I mean in height, so you can’t reach their damned tag) runners, giving us a rough 4:9 beating in the end. Most of us were choked up on the sideline looking at our boys letting tears of disappointment flow. However there was no time for regrets as medals were on offer if we could beat Welwyn how went down in the other semi to (yes, them again) OA’s. The 3rd place play-off was a demonstration of how these wee 7 year olds are just mini-versions of ourselves. Just inject confidence through their veins and they will all play better than any of us could dream of..... Will took 10 tags, Johnny 7 and Murray 5 ... Welwyn were completely overwhelmed. Though they picked up 3 2nd half tries, Harpenden B’s had torn away to win 7:3 with tries from William (3), Daniel (2) and a absolute screamer from Johnny up the touchline (where he kept his balance to stay in play the full length of the pitch). It was a joy to be watching them play in such a relaxed free-flowing manner. And the play of the day came as Luke Williams, after having one of his quieter days, took up a restart and then checked and stepped off his right foot like Brian O’Driscoll (sorry I mean Mike Tindall!), before a mazzy zig-zag took him to the touchline with a roar from his Dad that sounded like “free sweets all week for you, my boy”.
As the sun withdrew and drizzle descended we finally had the joy of watching our first medal awards as the gang of 9 (minus an early departed Brandon – don’t worry Tigger picked the medal up for ya) mounted the steps of the Trailfinders clubhouse veranda to hearty cheers. Hopefully, the first of many handshakes with a besuited rugby clubcommittee duffers in their future careers. The victorious coaches, Sab and Keith retired to the bar. With eyes glazed over, they allowed their young sons to eat over a dozen chocolate bars and crisps as they wept with joy into their Guinness.
Ahhh, a bit of a tasty future awaits us all this season ......