The day started early and cold for me (-1) but the sun was shining and it looked OK.
The children were almost ready to leave at the correct time but we had to wait for 1 player, but 5 minutes later we were off on our travels to London, the journey was going well till a traffic report came in that the M25 was shut and there was a 45 minute Que. A quick detour later and driving down some single track roads we arrived with 2 minutes to spare.
We warmed up in beautiful sunshine on a pristine pitch and it was not long before we were kicking off our 1st game against the hosts Woodlands Great Warley the game was fast and tight for the opening couple of minutes with the score level at 1 apiece, but some quick feet from Ben and Antonio increased the score and then a great break by Ellie who scored another to leave the game 4-1 at half time. We did suffer an injury to Selina after a boy stamped on her big toe the team pulled together in the second half and ran out 7-1 winners.
Our 2nd game was against Thorpe Hall and they certainly gave us a lesson in playing rugby and it was all we could do to hang on! some great plays by Nabat and Josh Fawcett kept us within touch but the team made some simple mistakes and the quality of the opposition exploited these and they won 7-5
Our 3rd game was against Ursaline Prep and this was going to be one of them games they were as skilled as us and the game was very close in the first half with some great running from Freddie and Mathew but a few simple mistakes cost us 2 try’s. The team stuck with it to pull back the scores to level the match. A couple of touch judge decisions cost us a couple of scores but yet again the team showed great character to level the match 7-7 at the end.
Our last pool game was against Cambridge International School and this again was another hard close game some great running from Daniil and Max provided some great go forward and some superb tagging from Josh M and Ella kept us in the game but again a couple of mistakes we made cost us and we lost 7-5.
Our final game was the Plate Final against the hosts Woodlands Great Warley and this was going to be one of them games Woodlands started strong and scored first against the run of play after capitalising on another mistake! But after that Sancton Wood calmed down and started playing the rugby they can, and it was not long before Selina found herself in some space to sprint away and level the match. It was not long after that that Max side stepped the defence and scored another and then some more great play resulted in another score for Ben in the far corner 3-1 half time.
A few changes at half time only bolstered the team to do better and some great handling created a tiny gap for Freddie to squeeze through the flood gates opened after that and I managed to get all 4 girls on the field at the same time and we still managed to score again running out 8-3 winners.
I would like to thank all the players for playing their hearts out today and coming home with a nice Silver plate and also to Ellie as my player of the Match.
