Sidcup U12 at the Foxbury Festival

The first Festival of the 2015/16 saw Sidcup U12’s at Old Elthamians’ for their Foxbury Festival. The U12's were drawn in a tough group with hosts OE's, Westcombe Park, Dartfordians and Old Colfeians’ (There’s a theme going here if you read the other age group match reports…).

First up was against eventual Group winners Westcombe Park, this was a hard fought match against much larger opposition!! However, this did not phase the U12's, who, despite conceding an early try in the first minute, managed through valiant defence and the flagrant diregard of the own bodies kept the score to 1-0 until 30 seconds from the final whistle when another score was conceded. (It turns out this was a greater performance than we knew at the time as Westcombe Park scored at least 3 or 4 tries in every match, so to hold them to 1-0 till the end was Fantastic! ). Final score 2-0 WP.

Next up was Old Colfeians who we were pleased to see were of normal proportions and with no signs of gigantasism amongst their squad!! Early Sidcup pressure from the set piece saw our Fly Half (Matthew C) make a delightful break from our own half with a scything run through several defenders to score the opening try. Sidcup absorbed lots of OC's pressure with great tackling by forwards and backs alike. The lineout was working really with good arrows from Harry L and salmon like leaps from Jamie W producing powerful catch and drives putting pressure on the opposition. From a solid scrum another fine break by Matthew C saw him again cut through the defence, side-stepping left and right and powering through the attempted tackles to bag his second try of the match. Late in the second half from broken play the Sidcup backline attacked again from their own half, using the full width of the pitch to link up with the always ball-hungry Jack H for him to outsprint the defence and score a well worked team try in the corner. The second half saw a determined OC’s team apply constant pressure only for it to be absorbed with various counter attacks, but yielding an eventual and well deserved try. Final score 3-1 Sidcup!

Our third match saw us pitted against our local Derby Friends from Dartfordians, this is always a tough match that usually decided by 2 or 3 scores. This was no exception, again against a side with some much bigger players that wouldn’t look out of place playing NBA… The match ebbed and flowed with both sides running from everywhere and throwing everything against each other. The only score of the match came from a period of sustained Dart’s pressure on our five yard line to result in a penalty that was scored from short range through poor defensive organisation on Sidcup’s part (though if you’re a Darts fan reading this it will no doubt have been scored through great skill in moving the defence!! lol). Final score 1-0 Darts.

Last up were hosts OE’s who rumours have it had been training all week in preparation for their home Festival, this showed and they ran out 4-0 winners in what could be considered a flattering scoreline. Despite the score, the squad did not roll over and capitulate, they fought throughout the whole match and really made OE’s work hard for their tries. Tom H at scrum-half had a great match stealing lots of ball, that resulted in a short trip to A&E for a potential hand injury, that happily turned out to be nothing too serious. Final score 4-0 OE’s.

Overall, we played 4, won 1 and lost 3 and whilst mildly disappointing it was a really encouraging start to the season with two really close games that if the results had gone the other way we would have finished 2nd instead of 4th in our Group!! It really is small margins with such low scoring games!! The REALLY encouraging thing for the Coaches, the Parents and the Players is that we were competitive all day, the squad conducted themselves with Respect, showed great Sportsmanship and Teamwork and never gave up in any of the matches, which I consider to be a great sign for the rest of the season!