U8 Kent Finals.

So after the Kent finals were moved from TJ's due to the flood damaged pitches, the cream of Kent's youth rugby teams descended on Aylesford for this years showpiece event.....and for those not going on Tour next weekend, the last tournament before we carry out the sacrificial burning of tags and belts before moving onto "proper rugby" next season !

Sidcup were drawn in a group with Canterbury, Gravesend and old foes Blackheath, who we'd recently beaten at the Westcombe Park festival and so were quietly confident going into the days fixtures....

First up Canterbury - and thanks to the training done on the Saturday our defence was the best I've seen it in a long time, discipline and ferocious - we turned the opposition over multiple times by getting the 7 tags in a row...a great display in both defence and attack and we ran out 5-1 victors. Special call out to Elliot - he's always been quite a unit, but showed some great pace and strength to score 2 tries after starting in his own half !

Second game was Gravesend - old friends from our joint training sessions over the last couple of years. This was a tight game, but our defence dropped off a bit from the 1st game and we were always just playing catch-up. As always a couple of slips in bad positions cost us and we ended up on the wrong end of a 6-4 scoreline.

So it was all to play for vs. Blackheath in our final game. We went in the game knowing that a win would give us some silverware - and as expected it was incredibly tight, and a tough physical encounter. Indeed I think Blackheath maybe thought they were into next season already with some pushing and shoving upsetting the rhythm of some of our boys. It's something they'll have to get used to next year though !
Unfortunately once again we came out on the wrong end of the result 6-5, but it really could've gone either way.

At the end of the day we have done incredibly well to make Finals day - we have a smaller squad than most of the clubs present and yet both our teams have more than held our own in every tournament played.

Steve and I were proud coaches at the end of the day and along with Mark, Chris and Will have some tough decisions to make ahead of Awards Night.

For those on tour next week, see you there (and remember your insect repellant and disinfectant if the TripAdvisor reports are to be believed), otherwise see you on the 9th.