Sidcup U8s make their Mothers' Day at the Kent Prelims

So, a great day out at Beckenham for this years Kent U8s Festival - we were lucky enough to enter 2 teams, one into each of the main and development tournaments.....we will come to the A team in a moment, but below is the report from Will on how the B team got on...

"Sunday showed how far the B team has come over the last few weeks. The guys showed true character after a very tough first match against Medway which they lost 7 tries to 1 (scored by Sam). Despite the score line Chris made an excellent point that on a number of occasions the team were turned over on the 7th tag – this means that the team did well in their ball retention and passing which is a big positive.

After the first game an ad-hoc training session ensued with coaches and Dads concentrating on defending the restarts and running straight which seemed to have its desired effect. The second game with Tonbridge Judds saw the team draw five all with tries from Jamie (2), Nathan (1), Billy (1) and Sam (1). The only disappointment was that the whistle didn’t go 30 seconds earlier as the team looked much stronger than their opposition.

And finally, in another close fought contest the team really stepped up winning five tries to four against Tunbridge Wells. Billy ran in his second try of the day whilst Jamie (on the promise of a hot dog) managed four. Increasingly support play is becoming more of a feature as evidenced by some great work by James, amongst others. The guys are working better and better as a team as the weeks go on and whilst not getting on the score sheet this week this is evidenced by the high work rate seen by Spencer and Taylor (hope the finger is ok!). We appreciate all the hard work.

On the whole the team is showing greater confidence in their play which is a pleasure to see. Well done to all!"

Great news - rugby is all about the collectiveness of the squad and its great that all our players are developing and that many are pushing for places in the A team....

So as for that current A team - we were pitched in a group with Bromley, Medway, Folkestone and Dover - 4 big clubs at Kent level - one of only 2 groups which had all '1s' teams in it, most others had a sprinkling of '2s'.

So first up - last seasons Kent U7s champions Bromley - we expected a tough game and sure enough got it - we weren't as asleep as in the 1st game at Colfes a couple of weeks back but were always playing catch up and despite a strong finish to the game ended up on the wrong end of a 5-3 result.

Next up Medway - pretty much an identical game - they were a good well drilled team, and indeed won all their games on the day including beating Bromley, and I think it was 5-3 again.....so 2 played 2 defeats and we knew another slip up was going to be very costly.....

We then played Folkestone and played much better, should have won comfortably but got a bit complacent and allowed a couple of late scores...so a 3-3 draw and 2 points each.....or so we thought......points were being awarded / deducted for fair play on the day - and Folkestone were deducted a point for their coaches rant on the touchlines and refusal to shake hands with us or the referees....now I know I can shout at my team but this bloke made me look like Mahatma Gandhi !!!! So a point off for Folkestone put us in pole position to secure a QF place.

I gave the boys a good talking too before the last game - basically told them to stop being so nice and be more aggressive and horrible (for 8 minutes only you understand !!).....seemed to work and we mullered Dover 8-5 to qualify for our quarter final.....where we met Cranbrook.....

A really tight game which was 4-4 at the end of regular time, 6-6 at HT in extra time, but where our fitness, strength and world class coaching finally paid dividends and we came out 8-6 winners...so we qualify for the Finals on 27th April - which is now at Aylesford - not Tonbridge Juddians......

Well played to both teams - a great day out. Thanks for all the support - especially those Mum's that came - I hope you had good afternoons afterwards...

See you next week - Mark will send out details in due course !

cheers, Stuart