Beaconfield Festival U12 As

Match reports by Pete Samuel.

A depleted Fullers U12 side were slow to get going in this tournament, and only really started playing in the last two games.

Opening match against Ealing. Ealing were a big team with quick backs. Fullerians went 2-0 down within minutes but didn’t stop trying. Having brought the game back to 2-2, we were undone by some impressive back line running and lost our opener 4-2.

Amersham & Chiltern were even bigger than Ealing with some hard running forwards who just bashed through us to finish 6-0 just after halftime. Tackling and commitment were our undoing.

High Wycombe also had a huge pack (do you see a pattern emerging here?), but in this game we woke up to the fact that tackling hard was the way forward. Despite going 2-0 down quite early in the game, we fought hard in the forwards, exploiting the 9/10 channel, to come back. Unfortunately, time beat us to the punch, and the game finished 2-1.

Henley, whom we drew 2-2 with at the Maidenhead Festival, were up next. Fullerians finally came alive and were on fire. Moment of the match – hard phases of rucking down the middle of the park (attacking the 9/10 channel again) was followed by a sublime grubber through-kick from Oliver Higgins who chased his own ball and sent Harry Samuel over for a try in the corner. Total team rugby at its best.

Other players of note:

Ollie Skinner – Still doing good work taking the ball down the channel, but also showed great maturity in leadership. A good captain's performance!

Harry Samuel – As pointed out in the skipper’s trophy speech; a great all round performance from the player who never gives up.

Tristan – Stepped into the 2nd row today. What he lacked in weight at scrimmage was more than made up by his tackling and speed to the breakdowns – a secret forward!

Higgins – Another great try-saving tackle. Must mention that grubber again – sublime!

Edwards – A bit slow to start today (unusually) but then came some very strong running from deep and some superb kicking from hand and excellent placed line kicks.

Kyran – Might have secretly enjoyed his stint at No8. He was about quickly and in their faces all day. Snipey and sneaky down the blind eventually going over for the final try.

Toby and James - Gave good performances, coming up from our Bs team into a tough festival. Well done and thanks to them for stepping up.

Negatives to work on:

TACKLING! For the first two games only half the team were tackling. This lost them the games. We were without doubt the smallest team on the park today, maybe they were overawed? Big runners were breaking 4-5 tackles.

Lineout was scruffy. Too many opposition came straight through to steal the ball. This may be due to lack of practice with the team playing today (with a larger than usual number of changes and players playing out of position).

PLAYERS NOT USING THEIR SUPPORTING RUNNERS. It took until the last game for the backs to pass down the line. Still too many greedy runs and no sign of anybody running onto the ball at pace from deep (probably because they knew they would not be passed to).