Fullerians A team win Tring Festival

Fullerians U12s left it to the last minute in their minis careers to secure a serious piece of silverware by winning the Tring Festival. With the sun shining, and the boys all in the mood to play rugby, the scene was set for something special, and boy, did the team deliver.
Our pre-festival talk to the team was a simple one: go and have fun, play the way you know you can and see what happens. Thirteen-As-One rugby was the mantra.
Coming up against local rivals, Hemel Camelot, would have been a tough ask one or two seasons ago. The 8-0 victory in our opening game showed the improvement in this team, and the opposition coaches were extremely magnanimous in their comments about how far we have come along this season.
Next up were Chinnor, and they nearly proved to be a banana skin for the boys, who for some reason couldn’t find the level of intensity they managed in that first game. Despite this, they ground out a 1-1 draw, and it could so easily have been a win had the maul, which worked so well all day, had not been held up over the line. We came out of the game kicking ourselves for not getting the win, and were determined to use the result to spur us on in the next one.
Tring were up for revenge after the mud bath contest in the winter, and they barrelled over for a try midway through the first half. It was interesting to see the boys’ reaction to this. There was no finger pointing or shouted recriminations, they just got back to business, and came back in the second half with four unanswered tries.
Harpenden, like Hemel, have proven to be a problem for us in the past with their physical and uncompromising style. It looked as if it was going to be a must-win game, and the boys took to the field with a look of grim determination etched on their faces. A 6-0 victory was laced with lots of controlled aggression, and Fullerians were comfortably through to the final.
With very little rest time, Fullers came off the Harpenden game and marched almost immediately into the final against a Bicester team who had had an hour of rest. Bicester were unbeaten all day, and were a skilled team with plenty of powerful boys. Fullerians played great rugby, creating plenty of chances which finally resulted in a first half try. Bicester came out in the second half and threw the kitchen sink at us. The defence was superb, and we kept them out time after time before playing great passing rugby to lead to the game-winning second.
Thirteen-as-one rugby at its very best.
After the way they played, it would be churlish to single out individuals for what turned out to be the best display of team rugby I have witnessed since joining the boys many years ago. Needless to say, the forwards were superb, winning, securing and supplying ball to their backs, who used this possession wisely and with no small amount of skill in attack, and as the scorelines show, in defence. Tears were shed, high-fives and hugs were dished out, and the boys revelled in a great set of victories to cap off their last year as minis, before they go on to play junior rugby next year.
I think I speak for all the coaches when I say that the boys were a joy to coach and watch today.
Well done lads.