Banbury back to winning ways

Sunday saw the U10s playing their first match of the season and their first tournament all in one! The tournament at Buckingham promised to be a fantastic test of the new principles of rucking, mauling and scrumming that the coaches had been working hard to instil in the squad. With a mix of new and old players, seasoned and fresh, the two sides would be facing teams from Leighton Buzzard, Bucks, Milkand Beans (sorry, Milton Keynes) Aylesbury and the dreaded Towcester (for those with memories long enough to remember last season, the trip to the Towcester boglands left scars for both players and coaches alike).

Undeterred, our sides started strong; teams 1 and 2 beating Bucks comfortably. Predictably the matches with Towcester were hard fought and really brought out the best in the players. Team 1 rallied after an early Towcester try (which involved their player running over the dead ball line to score – but who’s counting…) to achieve a hard-fought two-all draw. The second team held their Towcester opponents to a single try deficit to record their only defeat of the day. After that the going was good. Team 1 met Leighton Buzzard and won. Team two met Leighton Buzzard and won. In fact the winning streak didn’t really stop for both teams!

As a full squad Banbury only lost one match. We ended the tournament with a whopping 27 tries for, and only 7 against.

For a side that hadn’t played together for long, learning some pretty fundamental new skills and playing 5 games in the space of 3 hours – they did exceptionally well. Tackling was superb from all. Running lines straightened up as the day progressed, and players started to respond to the coaches pleas to ‘RUCK OVER’ and ‘GET OVER THE BALL’!! It bodes very well for the rest of the season how well the players bonded, and came together when the pressure was on.

There were some amazing moments of bravery and supreme effort, from whole teams, partnerships and individuals. There were some stand out moments however;

-          Toby’s winger-like try from within our half

-          Bacon’s outstanding individual try; showing us his dancing feet!

-          Lisa’s aggressive defence in the final match against Milton Keynes

-          Bailey’s dive into the corner to score the equaliser against Towcester

-          Luke’s impression of a springbok tearing through the defence to score his second against Buckingham

-          Jake’s hotstepping routine to throw defence off his tail

-          Ollie’s patented ‘wrap-around pass’ to offload the ball in the tackle

-          Josh M, Euan, Elliott and Noah tackling their hearts out all day long

But  in recognition of their efforts on the day, the coaches decided to award Top Rucker to Matthew Edmonds, Top Try Scorer to Bailey Blackburn, and Player of the Tournament to Noah.

For a relatively new player to the squad, Noah made a massive impact, tackling very strongly, rucking over and getting stuck in! It was his straight and powerful running that impressed the coaches most though. He’s going to be a force to reckon with this season, and we’re all glad he’s on our side!