Hall & Woodhouse
UNDER 7 NEWS
Salisbury Under 7’s win the Cup!
Report from Isle of Wight Festival hosted by Vectis RFC, by John Chaddock
CONGRATULATIONS to the Salisbury Rugby Football Club under 7’s who came home from the Isle of Wight as winners of the Cup! It was tremendous effort from the team; a team that had never played together before this competition. Facing stiff opposition, and knowing that this was the last series of games for this season, they all played with determination and a real desire to win each game. In a remarkable display, the team were unbeaten in the competition as they secured 5 wins and 2 draws.
The team, consisting of Max Harrison, Gregory Kitson, Piers Horlock, Christopher Chaddock, Andrew Charteris, Charlie Smith, Sam Goldsmith, Tom Ponsonby and Theo Cadier, were formed from 3 players who were on tour with SRFC and 6 players who travelled across to the Festival on Sunday morning. With only 3 of the Tiger squad that had so convincingly won the cup the previous week at Cleve, the Bears and Jaguars that completed the team provided an exciting challenge to Jon Burton: how to create a team from a group of boys from different U7 squads that needed to play together straight from the first match.
And what a match! The opener was against the hosts, Vectis, and, in a thrilling encounter that had the SRFC parents shouting and screaming for their team to keep the pressure on, the U7’s earned a very creditable 4-4 draw. In their second game, against Alton, the team showed that they had the skill and speed to secure victory; 5-3 to Salisbury. The third pool game was crucial: Wanstead and Salisbury went into the match with the same points and emerged, after a frantic 10mins with a 5-5 draw that owed as much to endless defensive tagging of the opposition as it did to individual brilliance in scoring points at the other end. In their final pool game, knowing that tries needed to be scored in order to secure the pool win, the Salisbury team put 7 tries past Bracknell B (final score 7-2) and, in doing so, won the pool. The team, Jon, and the parents were ecstatic: a pool win was already an excellent achievement.
And so to the knockout stages. The quarter final, against Chichester was initially very close, with 2 evenly matched teams neck-and-neck for much of the game. However, as the game neared the end the Salisbury team put in a series of attacks that left the opposition with too much to do and Salisbury came out 6-4 winners. For the semi-final, Salisbury faced Edenbridge and, in another thrilling encounter (during which the Salisbury parental choir was in full voice to encourage their team and to try to compete with the substantial support for Edenbridge) Salisbury were 5-4 victors.
Into the final! The competition came full circle as Salisbury were to face Vectis in the final; the team they had drawn 4-4 in the opening match. After 60 min of rugby (and some very early starts from home) the Salisbury legs were tired and, with a very quick winger on the opposition team, Salisbury initially had difficulties coping with such speed so late in the competition. However, some solid and intelligent defence got to grips with the Vectis attack and the sounds of “tag”, “tag”, “tag” emerged furiously from the Salisbury players. With Salisbury 3-2 up at half time, Vectis immediately scored and set up a thrilling finale. The pace of the game was such that, when the referee finally blew for full time, the team and Jon were unsure whether they had won or it was a draw. The ref, after an agonising pause, announced Salisbury 5, Vectis 4 and the team had done it!
A huge well done to all of the team. Under the circumstances, it is unnecessary to identify individuals and their contributions: the combination of individual brilliance on the ball, pace in attack, positional play in defence and unending teamwork ensured that the U7’s picked up another trophy to add to this season’s haul. Well done all!