A “mixed ability” Sevenoaks u11’s team consisting of the following players attended the Warlingham Festival:
Joseph Box, Finn Gallagher, Jack Hall, Arthur Hansen, Alex Holden, Peter Latrobe, Sean Lenaghan, Luke Onuoha, Ben Pearl, Andrich Skein, Alfie Stratton, Jared Waller, Monty Wetherill
The first game was against a very strong team (read “A-team”) from the host club and with Sevenoaks starting too slow, missing tackles and losing their rucks, Warlingham ran out 5-0 winners and they have scored some exceptionally good team tries on the wing. A special mention to Jack Hall who never gave up and Luke Onuoha who made numerous tackles on players twice his size.
The second game was against Old Alleynians and it was a very different Sevenoaks team who turned up. With Ben Pearl and Jack Hall leading the charge, Sevenoaks went up 1-0 following a try by Ben Pearl. Although Old Alleynians fought back, tries from Jack Hall and Monty Wetherill (following a team move involving at least 6 players off-loading in the tackle) sealed a 3-1 win for Sevenoaks. This was an incredibly good team performance against a very good team. Jack Hall was “man of the match” and special mention to Andrich Skein (rucking & tackling), Sean Lenaghan (tackling), Finn Gallagher (winning all the scrums as hooker), Arthur Hansen (work horse all over the pitch), Alex Holden (2 disallowed tries), Jared Waller (strong runs on the wing) and Alfie Stratton (creating the “team try”).
Due to one team not turning up, the Sevenoaks players had to wait long for their third game against the Old Cats. Although the team was a bit rusty from the long wait, Ben Pearl was in devastating form and scored three tries and with further tries from Peter Latrobe (finishing a lovely team effort) and Alfie Stratton, Sevenoaks comfortably ran out 5-0 winners. Again a very good team performance – Ben Pearl was “man of the match” and special mention to Jack Hall (lively as always), Alfie Stratton (creating lots of opportunities for team mates), Finn Gallagher (winning all the scrums as hooker), Alex Holden and Jared Waller (strong runs when receiving the ball on the wing).
Due to a misunderstanding, only 5 Sevenoaks players were able to attend the “last-minute” award ceremony where we won the “runners-up” trophy, hence the lack of players on the photo with the trophy.
A good introductory day to u11s rugby for most of the boys and the players and parents were excellent representatives of the club.