U11 MINI RUGBY

News ... for April 20th

We have the Surrey A tournament on Sunday at Dorking on April 20th so for avoidance of doubt the following boys have been selected:

Tom Gard, Tom B, Seb C, Ryan M, Max W, Max VDV, Christian DM, Tom Gyn, Louis P, Ed H, Frankie R, Andrew B,

Nick B, Matt A & Ben L.

It has been a long time since we all got together, so as a final effort to win some silverware we are having a unopposed session for the A squad for one hour on Friday at 6.00pm at Cobham. I hope you can all make it and the bar will be open.

The B&C Squads have training at Cobham, 10am start.

As ever, if your son cannot play - especially at the festival - please let us know as soon as possible.

Best regards

Cobham RFc U11s Coaching team

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Surey C festival report

A depleted C team (11 attendees only) paired up with old Emmanuellians to battle through a difficult Festival in atrocious weather conditions.  There were some excellent and prolonged phases of attacking play that the whole squad can rightly be proud of, with unfortunately the final scores not reflecting a pattern of finishing matches positively.

Old Alleynians

 Following a traffic jam outside NESCOT to rival Falling Down, and a crack of thunder in the opening seconds of the match, the omens were not good!  Old Alleynians fielded the strongest side of the Festival and ran in 3 tries in the first half.  The beginning of the Cobham fight back occurred with a good drive at the end of the first half and in the second half there was a markedly different performance.  Oliver Hind (recovering from having been steam rollered in the first half) placed several well aimed kicks that were capitalised upon by the team and William Clark was very unlucky to be denied a try inches from the line.

20 v nil

Chobham

 With but a few minutes rest, the Chobham match began straight after that against Old Alleynians.  It was again a game of 2 halves.  Four tries conceded in the first half but the second half almost won.  Stevie Warr scored a well deserved try after a sustained drive involving the whole team getting stuck in, and inch by inch gaining territory, with Chobham equalising in the dying seconds of the match.

25 v 5

Sutton & Epsom

 By the time of the Sutton and Epsom match, rain, hail and cold were beginning to take their toll.  5 tries scored in the first and 4 in the second with highlights being some dogged tackling by Hugh Farmer and a long run down the wing by Max Pengilly. 

45 v nil

Farnham

 The first half was entertaining and close with no score being made by either team.  There was then a blip on the radar with 3 tries being conceded at the beginning of the second half before Cobham produced some of their best rugby of the day.  Ben Foster was denied on the line despite wriggling out of the clutches of 4/5 Farnham players like a conga eel.  William Clark won a brace of line outs at number 3.  The try scored by Hugh Farmer was the justified result of the whole pack bringing pressure on Farnham that led to a string of penalties, ending the day on a high note.

15-5

Squad: 

BEN FOSTER                           

MATTHEW WOOTTEN

MITCHELL ROBINSON

STEVIE WARR     

OLIVER MOULD

OLIVER HIND       

ANGUS HYAMS

HUGH FARMER   

MAX PENGILLY

CHARLIE CROOK

WILLIAM CLARKE

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Teddington C Festival report

A Hard Day at the Office for the U11 C's

Four hard matches and a Plate Final left the U11 C's battered and bruised on a hot Sunday in Teddington.

The day started with the knowledge that only 12 of the 14 players turned up with two no-shows and, with a playing squad of 12, that meant no substitutions.

This was not made easier by the fact that the Cobs played back-to-back matches against Richmond and Teddington in muddy conditions.

The Richmond game started well with the forwards playing well and the backs keen, but struggling to generate much speed in the mud. Richmond scored and converted two tries as a result of missed tackles in open play resulting in a 14 - 0 scoreline. In the match against Teddington, the sides were more evenly matched than the 28 - 0 result would suggest and this was down to one very fast player at Teddington who made all the points and our squad found impossible to stop. The result could have been worse but for the tackle-of-the-day by Matthew Gilbert, an awesome try-saving tackle on one of the biggest lads in the Teddington line-up.

After a welcome breather, the squad faced Chobham. After several phases of control by Matthew Wooten, Stevie Warr and Sidney Allen, William Clarke broke free and drove the line over for a great try. Captain and scrum half, Oliver Hind, converted to give the Cobs a 7 - 0 win. (This was a good win, given that Chobham had beaten us in the Cobham C Festival).

Facing up to Sutton & Epsom, the attack was again led by the forwards with Mitchell Robinson making two very big hits and winning the ball in the scrum against the head twice early on. The ball then started moving out to the backs and Farrell Mahon, Charlie Crook and the new haircut of Ben Crawley started to make some in-roads. Max Pengilly also made two great tackles on the wing driving S&E players into touch to give us the lineout. However, some very dubious refereeing calls, meant that the squad missed out on two very good try scoring opportunities and lost by 14 - 0.

The win against Chobham had given the squad a place in the plate final against Teddington. Hugh Farmer at Full Back had an outstanding game with some great defensive clearances. Even though our forwards dominated much of the possession, after a grueling day with no substitutes, they were exhausted and so the 19 - 0 loss did not come as a huge surprise.

Fourth place in the tournament was disappointing, but there is nothing tougher than going to a tournament with no substitutes and all the players are to be applauded for their absolute commitment.
You can't ask for any more than that!!

Regards
Steve

Guildford B Festival Report

The B's had a very good day coming third to win the plate, but could have been runners up, and were only a try away from being potential winners in a slightly strange festival draw where all 10 teams were in the same group, but we could only play 5 of them.

For the record, results were
Cobham v Basingstoke 28/0 Win
v Dorking 33/0 Win
v Reeds 5/0 Win
v Teddington 0/0 Draw
v Sutton&Epsom 0/14 Loss

So you can see it started of well then got much tougher!

The boys came out of the blocks on fire playing some of the best rugby for many months, giving the first two teams no chance at all, the forwards were winning every breakdown and scrum and the backs were running riot, champagne rugby! As the festival went on and the games got tougher the boys still played with the same enthusiasm even in the last match against Sutton, which was a real ding dong of a match, with the forwards battling it out up front.

Our boys were unlucky to concede the first try early in the first half, with Suttons forwards driving over the try line, having been set up from a forward pass, that even there own coaches agreed with, they then conceded the second try, almost from the kickoff in the second half, with Sutton's forwards driving over again, this time legitimately, but apart from that the boys were well matched.

All the forwards played very well, with Harry E. as Captain for the day, putting in some great work in the rucks and mauls and good runs as well, playing along side him in second row, big Jack also had a good day always working hard and some good pickup and drives. The front row played well with Dan M. opening the scoring for the forwards against Basingstoke, bursting out of a ruck and giving himself a clear run for a try, Barnaby played really well stepping in for Alastair as hooker, and Henry was solid throughout and Sav and Stevie Warr also did a great job.

George Bents had a stormer at s/h with some very aggressive play and much better passing and he linked up well with Rory at f/h who put out some lovely passes to Frankie and miss passes to Charlie H and really got the back line going when he got the chance. Frankie had a super day at inside centre, with some aggressive running and intelligent passing, using the switch pass on several occasions to good effect, and strong tackling. Charlie Hibbert at o/c, good hands and runs good lines, played well throughout. Toby Nash, had some great runs and started to come looking for the ball more as the festival went on, really enjoys himself on the wing. Spencer D. was solid as f/b and caught the ball well, put in some good runs and tackles. Harry Bennett coming up from the Cs played on the wing as did Sav who did a fine job, when the games got tougher.

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Jan 2008 ... The U11 Age group is now fully subscribed so we are unable to take on any more new players.  Please contact our Managers for further information.