Wasps Middlesex Festival

The Under 12’s followed a great win last week against Weybridge Vandals by winning the Under 12A shield at the Middlesex Festival held at Wasps.

Our opening match was a high scoring affair against Rosslyn Park with Grasshoppers winning 28-14. New recruit Jivendra scored 3 tries with Mohamed adding the fourth. Owen was deadly accurate scoring all four conversions.

The next match against Staines was a tighter affair. Grasshoppers went 7-0 up only to find ourselves 12-7 down late in the second half. Jivendras’ pace added our second try and Owen held his nerve to score the conversion and give us the trophy.

Every member of the squad played a part and we improved as the day went on.

The coaches were very pleased with the commitment and spirit the boys showed in coming from behind against a strong Staines team.

Our focus in training will be more tackling drills, practicing the scrum over and over, lineout drills, and more variety in the backs division.

Phill Tait U12 manager 2008/9

Under 12’s Report away at Pinner 1/3/09

The under 12’s had a great time at Pinner who were very hospitable hosts.

We had four boys unavailable for various reasons but the 13 who turned up put in our best performance for some time and we enjoyed a big win scoring six tries and conceding none.

Throughout the match Hoppers forwards consistently won the ball and provided the backs the platform to open the play up. It was great to see our wingers Michael and Lesley give us great width which continually stretched the Pinner defence and allowed us to score freely.

Grasshopper’s scorers were Mathew, Oliver, Cam, Freddie, Michael, and Ben Tait with five successful conversions.

We go to training next week to fine tune a few things before the Middlesex matches at Grasshoppers on the 15th March
Phill Tait U12 manager 2008/9

Under 12’s Festival 2/11/08

Grasshoppers 0 Finchley 0

Hackney Bulls 0 Grasshoppers 21

Grasshoppers 14 Twickenham2 0

Grasshoppers 7 Hammersmith & Fulham 5

Grasshoppers won Group A

Final: Kings 12 Grasshoppers 7

What a fantastic day and a great achievement by the boys!!! The squad played with huge heart, commitment and team spirit, to reach the final against tough opposition from nine other teams. This was done with only 13 players after James unfortunately twisted his ankle in the first game - get well soon James. So the remaining boys played every game. Superb tackling and defence meant that after three matches we hadn’t conceded a single point. In the last group match we needed to beat Hammersmith to reach the final. We went a try down but instead of heads dropping the Hoppers fought back and a conversion by Owen saw us through.

In the final we played a very well drilled Kings team. Despite taking the lead Kings width and pace saw them through as worthy winners.

Through the day our try scorers were, Oliver, James, Jack, Fin, and Owen.

Special thanks for making the day such a success to Stephen, Richard, Pete, Lesley and the fantastic groundsmen for preparing the pitches so well.

Phill Tait Under 12’s Manager

Grasshoppers U12’s at Guildford

Well what a wild wet and windy day, we’re we grateful and smug under our Gazebo!!

We took a squad of 16 boys to Guilfordians and had a great Festival despite the weather. Huge thanks go to Stephen, Pete and Richard for all their hard work along with all the parents who came to support the team.

We started slowly and lost our first two matches, drew the third and comfortably improved to win the last two.

It was a real team effort with the forwards out scrummaging every team we played and the backs showing great handling despite the weather.

Our try scorers were Ben, James and Oliver and special mention should go to Filip, Michael and Thomas who made a great debut.

We have learnt a few lessons which we are taking to training this week and will do even better in the matches to come.

Phill Tait

For last seasons U11 News follow this link

For last seasons U12 News follow this link