Grasshoppers B Festival 2nd November 2008

On the day we had a fairly good contingent of players – a full squad in fact, we did however leak many players primarily to our Barbarians team which was mainly our team, plus 2 permanent rotating players for the Hackney Bulls team and 2 players to the under 10’s team – and as Oliver said to me (without complaint) “ I have played for 4 teams today” but it was all in good spirit and most of the kids played in at least 4 games and some many more!

Grasshoppers v Finchley. 0-1
A slow start to the Festival for the team, with the players not quite awake yet. It was a shame that we lost this one but Finchley went on to be the tournament winners for the U11s so actually only losing by 1 to nil was a pretty good result.

 

Barbarians v Hammersmith & Fulham. 1-1

 

Grasshoppers v Hackney Bulls. 3-0
The games started a bit lateral with everyone running great widths of the field – “crabbing” which only gives the opposition time to get organised and our team tired and frustrated. A quick talk at half time led to perhaps the best set phase play that I have seen our team play; the scrum was won by our team in our half - Matthew (Sorry if it was Ben – good ball either way) delivered a quick clean pass to which Andrew ran onto, Andrew ran straight at his opposite number, sucked him in a passed out to Taz who ran straight, sucked in his defender and passed out to Jake who had some work to do but showed a clean pair of heels to the opposition and touched down in the corner. Good hands, unselfish, textbook try! Other tries to Peter the “fisherman” he lets the opposition take the ball then rips it in the direction of least resistance – ie their way to come out on their side all ball and power!

 

Barbarians v Finchley. 3 -0

 

Grasshoppers v Barbarians. 3-1
This started with a shock as the Barbarians scored first – by a big guy at number 10 on loan from another club. Not going to plan, if they won it would be bad planning and a possible early finish. The Barbarians held 1 nil for some time (lengthened by the stress) until I believe Andrew evened up – however we would not go through with a draw! Aran followed this up with a bludgeoning run that fell short of the line, a bit of confusion as it was on the other end of the pitch from us but Josh picked up and he was cut down on the line, Taz picked up and dived over the line. However Josh was very hurt and not one to complain he was in a lot of pain – it so transpired later after an ambulance collection that he has a broken leg and up to 6 weeks in a cast! Putting his body on the line has never been literally truer. In the game I think there was another Taz try to make it 3-1.

 

Grasshoppers v Hammersmith & Fulham. 2-0
2 Andrew tries here carving up some defence. However what really started to dominate here were our forwards – again and again we won clean ball for the backs and many scrums were won against the head, (on their put in) also the lineouts are starting to take shape.

 

Barbarians v Hackney Bulls. 2 – 1

FINAL GAMES

1st & 2nd Place Play Offs
Finchley v Rosslyn Park. 1 – 0

3rd & 4th Place Play Offs
Grasshoppers v Teddington. 0 – 2

So we made it through to the 3rd/4th playoff against arch rivals Teddington. I have reffed these guys and their forwards were well disciplined and formed good bridges over the ball to give clean uninterrupted ball for the scrum half. 2 nil up in the first half, the second half was all ours with our forwards driving them back and exploding their bridges – Luna fits well into fullback where he ran well, covered well and tackled well including his best tackle ever in that game where he saved a definite try.

In Summary The usual faces in the team did their work that we now expect of them and I have not mentioned – other tackles of mention were of course Andrew’s, Jake’s which get better every week and Luke bundling opposition players off the field like herded sheep. One of the best tackles of the day was against us in a classic David and Goliath where the smallest fullback ever pulled Aran’s ankles together and felled him like a mighty redwood.

Special mention to the organisation – despite missing players, referees and car parking issues I think Adrianne and the team of parent pitch officials ran the day like clockwork – well done.

Old Guildfordians Festival - 5th October 08

After everyone arriving efficiently between 9 and 9.45am our first game was not scheduled until 11am, however Under 11’s started late,(don’t know why)  so it was 11.30 before we first played, and 3pm when we played our last pool game. Not enough time was allocated to allow for the conversion kicks at the end of each game. What a day to drag on, miserable weather – really wet and no team tent. We can learn from this.

So that’s the whingeing done. Well done to all the parents and the players who turned up and stayed all day through the dreadful weather.

Game 1v Effingham and Leatherhead – tough game, very tight. We were 1 try down most of the game, the pressure was mounting, Andrew did not pass the ball the whole game but finally redeemed himself by scoring a try and equalling the game. Conversions at the end of the game, they got theirs but we missed ours. Score 7-5.

Game 2 v Wallingham. – tight game again, Oliver moved into fly half and got away a few late passes to put people into space. Once again it was 1 try against most of the way through until Taz scored in 3rd phase play after some deft passes of the ball where most of the backs got a hand on the ball. So it was a draw going into the conversions at the end of the game – they kicked first and got theirs, Andrew went for the Jonny Wilkinson style and converted! – he was back in favour, and he had played himself back into fly half - it was like he had just won the world cup (or even better, the tri-nations) final score 7-7

Game 3 v Pullborough. – now this team I had refereed so I know how good their forwards were and their scrum half was quick. We held them quite well and all of our forwards can stand up and take some credit as we held them well with Aran’s bullocking runs, Elliots taught defence and Kian’s supporting. Their scrum half scored 2 identical tries and added another with poor positioning of our backs. Score after they converted all 3 tries Final Score 21-0.

Game 4 v Brighton. We played this one for pride and the game ended 0-0 which is a tribute to all those usual faces who put in tackle after tackle like Andrew, but also all the others who also tackled because they had to and it counted. Great defence guys. Proud to be your coach. Score 0-0

Thanks also to Adrianne who kept us all organised and Ryan for the magic on the forwards.