New Milton Festival 2010

Salisbury RFC Under 10 match report

After a day and night of heavy rain in Wiltshire, it seemed unlikely the New Milton festival could possibly go ahead; but the much-vaunted micro-climate turned out not to be fictitious, and at breakfast time the man from New Milton said ‘Yes’. The micro-climactic day turned out to be blustery and wet, but warm, and the pitches were well playable.

The message that it was all systems go took a while to sink in with the Salisbury U10A team, however. In familiar fashion, they didn’t get round to turning up mentally for the beginning of their first pool game, against a well-organised Trojans team. Salisbury left some big holes in their defence, letting the Trojans forwards power through to score in the first half, and then add insult to injury by snatching a break-away try on the wing early in the second. Salisbury finally woke up and fought back, however, and ended strongly, camped on the Trojans’ try-line. Our scrummaging and rucking in particular looked promising – but no tries to show for it yet.

Everything changed in the second game against Ringwood. Salisbury decided to turn out and play some real rugby. There was some great attacking play, with lots of individual runs, mostly well-supported. The rucking just got better and better. Tom Wheeler fought his way belligerently over the line to open the scoring from a strong attacking ruck. The team was inspired and began to let rip. Fin Lloyd-Gilmour, who had a terrific day at scrum half causing all sorts of trouble for the opposition, then put in a long arcing run, and scored a commanding try in the corner. The constant pressure was kept up, with all the rucking training really beginning to tell, and the next try for Nikki Dembinski came from some great loose attacking play.

For the third pool game, against Swanage, Salisbury were well fired up. There was an early shock as Swanage’s big man scored straight down route one from a penalty. Salisbury were undaunted, though; they brought out their defensive best and were never troubled by him again. Xav Hastings, one of the stand-out performers of the day, in both attack and defence, was finally rewarded for his strong running from the pack with a powerful try at close range. The indomitable Fin L-G put in another weaving run to touch down in the corner, and finally Josh Hole, re-located out of the pack and onto the left wing, made a huge looping run across the field, taking on all-comers and scoring unstoppably in the right corner.

In the final pool match, we faced a strong and well-drilled Bournemouth team. Despite some very strong defending and some good attacking play, we were still 1-0 down at half-time. Once again, Salisbury weren’t dispirited and fought their way back. Fin L-G scored another of his ‘specials’ in the left corner, after another great run. And he would have done it a second time too, but for an unlucky touch call. By the end, Salisbury had control of this hard-fought game and deserved a win.

This saw Salisbury finish third in the group which qualified them for the plate competition. The semi final against Wimborne proved to be a cagey affair. Salisbury always looked to be the stronger side but struggled to turn that strength into points. At the whistle only a try from Fin separated the teams.

That victory led to a plate final against old adversaries New Milton. As always between these sides it was a close match. Salisbury looked tired having played one more pool game than their opponents and trailed two to nil early in the second half. Xavier then intercepted a pass to score a try to bring Salisbury back into the game before they carelessly conceded a third try. Gus scored a well worked try but time ran out before Salisbury had a chance to score again.

This was a promising start to the season. This is a squad not only with some outstanding quality players, but also with strength in depth which knows how to play as a team. They have shown that they have the spirit to come back from reverses and the maturity to take on board and implement the lessons of training.