U10 MINI RUGBY

COBHAM U10s MAKE HISTORY AT SURREY C FESTIVAL

13 April 2008

This time last year we were all getting sunburnt - however, the inaugural Surrey C festival 2008 was held in much more typical April weather. The organisational issues at Priest Hill - 8 portaloos for thousands of people, one hot drink stall and one food point, all with massive queues - were still present and quite a few players were still streaming in well after the first matches should have kicked off - parking was also challenging.

Nevertheless, the U10s competition got underway with Cobham v Kings. William Hornby opened the scoring and we never looked back in this game, with further tries from Max Byworth, Connor Norris (2) and McKenzie Wright. A convincing opening match. Result 5-0.

Our second game was against Sutton & Epsom, which again went our way. Tries from Oliver Taylor (2), William Hornby and Max Byworth. Result 4-0. An encouraging start, with all boys up to speed and making a contribution.

Game three was against Old Alleynians. We don't come across them very often, so don't know their form. We all know Dwain Chambers has been trying out at Castleford - well, it looks like his marginally smaller brother has signed up for Old Alleynians. This player was very fast and strong going forward and most of OA's moves took full advantage of this. Coach Neil Miller had spotted him in a previous game and his single instruction to our players was "they will pass to him, so don't let him get going". Wise words that fell on stony ground....when we had possession all went well, and there was never more than one try in it, but with one or two exceptions, we never quite got to grips with how to tackle young "Chambers". Old Alleynians won the game 4-3. Tries for Cobham came from McKenzie Wright, William Hornby and Max Byworth.

The final pool game was against Old Reigations. At this point we knew that there were no semis and only pool group winners would progress to the final. Another win would put us in a strong position, as we were level on points with Old Alleynians (Old Reigations had clearly figured out how to defend against Old As beating them in a previous game). After a lot of Cobham pressure Old Reigations finally conceded a try, scored by Seth Tait. James Miller and Max Byworth followed up with one more each. We thought at the end of the game that Nathan Spratt had scored, with a strong effort on the right wing. On reflection, however, it was inevitable that after his fourth or fifth hand-off the ref would notice something and disallow it! Fair enough. Result 3-1 to Cobham.

There had been a mis-communication about one of the game results along the way that caused consternation for a while, but it was eventually sorted out and we were delighted to find our try difference was better than Old Alleynians, so we were through to meet Chobham in the final. A very close affair - the experts predicted there would be only one try in it and they were right. The final result was 1-0 to Cobham, courtesy of a completely legal try by Nathan! And so Cobham U10s take their place in history as the first ever winners of the Surrey C trophy!

Thanks all round: to Neil Miller and Neil Wright for coaching and inspiring the boys, to Pete Matthews who stepped in to help out the U7s as their ref, and most of all, to the boys themselves. The winning squad was:

Max Byworth, Rohan Gupta, Will Hornby, Ollie Matthews, James Miller, Tom Muxworthy, Connor Norris, Nathan Spratt, Will Stewart, Seth Tait, Oliver Taylor, Joe Walker, James White and McKenzie Wright.