First of all, thank you to all the mums that turned out today to support the players. I am sure you’ll agree the kids gave you all a fantastic mother’s day present with such amazing play and it was sunny too!
The three mixed teams competing in the Kent Festival won all their games very convincingly scoring 74 vs 12 tries in 9 games, some of which we played 5-6 players against 8! It was a very proud day for all the coaches and parents. Well done to every single player – you were all awesome! It is a privilege to be part of this fantastic U10s squad.
Sevenoaks 1
Players: Harry Bouverie, Benjy Collingwood, Thomas Hyde, Freddie Lowndes, Hamish McQueen, Taylor Nash, Edward Neale, Mitchell Short, Sammy Tansley, Joel Walter
On a bright sunny Mother’s day morning, Sevenoaks 1 set out to stamp their authority on the day in the first game against Maidstone. Within the first few minutes the Oaks were 5-0 up and started to pull players off the field to try to make it more of a competition. The Oaks just kept going with some fantastic tackling and rucking. At half time the Oaks were 7-0 up and it was decided to cut the team to 5 players for the second half to play against the Maidstone 8. This evened up the game a bit, but the players on the pitch ran and tackled their hearts out to end the score 11-2. Special mentions go to Tom for his 4 length of the pitch tries, Joel for his silky side stepping 2 tries, Hamish with his brave-heart blue war paint 2 tries and Ed for his fantastic try saving tackles.
The team readied themselves for what they thought would be the toughest opposition of the day, Ashford. However, they didn’t turn up. They had obviously seen the first game and didn’t fancy taking on the Mighty Oaks! The kids relaxed until their game against Canterbury. A little too much relaxing though as the game was a lot closer than the first. It was 1-1 at half time, with the Oaks uncharacteristically missing tackles and losing the ball at the breakdown. A tough Eddie Jones like half time talk ensued. Benjy led from the first whistle with his route one head down technique barrelling over for the first score of the second half. Two more Oaks scores followed with some great support play by Freddie picking the ball off his shoe laces and running round two players to score the last of the match. Final score was 4-1.
The last game of the day was against Bexley. The Oaks didn’t want to have a close match again so they came out of the blocks with adrenalin running high. Bexley just couldn’t match the pace of the Oaks as the boys in blue and gold rattled off 5 tries within the first few minutes. Again the Oaks resorted to pulling players off the park, dropping down to 7, then 6 and then 5 for the second half. Still the Oaks kept running them in with some fantastic straight running by Mitch for his 2 tries and Taylor for his. Sammy was fantastic rucking all the opposition off the ball and playing scrum half at the same time. Harry showed his wonderful Belgique flair cutting through the opposition like a knife through butter to run in his try. Final score 13-1.
Sevenoaks 1
Sevenoaks 2
Team: Gerran Prescott, Jack Kaye, Edward Thompson, Jamie Wishart, Charlie Gillespie, William Brook, Zach Loder, Lars Hansen, Kyle Cameron, Imogen Mockford, Monty Farmer
With an early roll call on Mothering Sunday, the team came together and showed it was going to be a tournament to remember. Up first were the Dartfordians. For the first time in a while, The Mighty Oaks started with a spring in their step with some good rucking and driving followed by some passes out to wing enabling Lars and Will to drive through getting two on the score sheet each. Dartfordians did push back to gain two but the team remained strong and with Kyle, seeming to want to challenge Usain Bolt today, waiting patiently as first receiver, he sped through three times to make the final score 7 - 2 to The Oaks.
After an hour wait between games, the coaches had their concerns that Bromley were going to over run us in the first minutes. This was not the case, once again Sevenoaks came out like they meant it. Some good rucking from Gerran, Jack and Edward with Jamie and Charlie making some great straight runs through the pack with off loads out to the wings allowing Lars and Zach to get a try each. Charlie steps up with a great running drive to add his name to the score sheet. With some great width from Monty and Zach, the team looked to gain formation allowing Kyle to make his now trademark runs back and forth, then through to add 4 tries, with the final whistle blowing at 7 - 0 Sevenoaks.
With Thanet pulling out last minute, we were up against Old Dunstonians for our last game. The team were certain to impress the mums watching today with a fantastic display of driving and support play. Great rucking positions as well as good hands from Imogen, and Lars, allowed a few turn over balls which were then capitalised upon. With some early tries from Kyle, Lars and Charlie - in a repeat of match two - it turned to a more end to end game. The OD’s managed to get two tries back but then Will lived up to his “Zig Zag” nickname, Jamie made one of his usual straight through driving runs and Kyle simply sped past the OD’s defence to make the final score 8 - 2 to The Mighty Oaks.
Some excellent rugby and team spirit today - surely the best mothers day present all those mums could have wanted!
Sevenoaks 2
Sevenoaks 3
The early morning chill winds gave way to a beautifully sunny Mothers’ Day at Westcombe Park as the Sevenoaks 3 team comprising Jonny Chambers, Colby Bedford-Eatwell, Charlie Drysdale, Jack McLeish, Luke Dimond, Henry Lewis, Ethan Henrey, Liam Bartholet, Oliver Dimond and Brennan O’Keefe took to the field.
As the pool only contained 4 teams the games were 10 minutes each way giving plenty of game time. First up was Dover and Sevenoaks 3s put on some of the best champagne rugby the expectant crowd has had the pleasure to watch all season putting a scarcely believable 12 tries past the opposition. It is easy when dominating in this manner to leak one or two tries but not this Sevenoaks team. Superior rucking and mauling won the ball at almost every breakdown and so determined were they to keep a clean sheet that they held the ball up close to their line on two occasions. No tackles were missed all game and the attacking play was sublime. It was like watching the All Blacks at their attacking best with overlaps of 2 or 3 players being used with unselfish passing by the forwards and centres to put the wingers in to score. Of the 12 tries 9 were scored by wingers- 4 each for Brennan and Liam and 1 for Ethan. On top of that Luke, who was distributing the ball with aplomb, scored one with a mazy sidestepping run up the middle, Colby muscled over for our first and in a piece of theatre Henry fed Liam who jinked past the last defender and when over the line passed it back to Henry to touch down. The try scoring bonanza was only made possible by the relentless tackling, rucking and mauling from unsung hard workers in the thick of it – Jonny, Jack, Colby, Charlie with Henry playing in the centre and demonstrating good versatility getting stuck in to win the ball when required and making many quick first up tackles.
Next up was Aylesford. Having refereed a game for them earlier, which they narrowly lost to Sittingbourne, it was clear this was going to be a much tougher ask as they had some particularly aggressive ruckers. The first half was a close affair and we went into half time 2-0 up through Brennan making his trade mark burst through a couple of defenders to score in the corner and, not to be outdone, Ollie showing great pace and strength to break several tackles and score on the other wing. The hard work continued in the second half with Brennan adding a couple more, one as a result of good supporting play in the vein of Jack Nowell, and Luke finished the game off with another mazy run through the entire opposition from deep in our own half. Another clean sheet at 5-0 was a good return against a reasonably strong opposition. Again all of the tries came from wingers with one from the half back with all players unselfishly doing their job and doing it well.
The last game of the day was against Sittingbourne who were also unbeaten and the luck of the draw in a small pool meant that our boys had to play back to back games which added up to 40 minutes of rugby in one go under an increasingly warm sun- and now against the other form team. Despite the tired legs we started brightly taking an early lead thanks to Liam cutting inside when the opposition expected him to try and outflank them. Henry added another but then Sittingbourne fought back and levelled the score at 2-2. Just before half time Ollie had another flying run using his strength yet again to burst through and give us a narrow lead. Despite running on fumes and needing to employ some rolling substitutions to give exhausted legs a rest we battled hard through the second half. First Aylesford equalised at 3-3 making the dedicated & vocal crowd wonder if we could hang on. Jack having been in the thick of it all day saw some daylight, ran straight and true to just shy of the try line for Brennan, running yet another great supporting line, to pick up and dive over to edge us ahead. Yet again Aylesford equalised and it was clear neither side was willing to give up easily. Nevertheless, it was Sittingbourne who blinked first, they fell for a Henry dummy to give him enough space to feed Liam for another score. This seemed to break Sittingbourne and two well taken tries from Brennan rounded a tough game off 7-4 in our favour.
Before signing off I want to re-iterate that it’s easy to record the flyers and try scorers, who it has to be said did exceptionally well today, but it’s all made possible through the relentless hard work of the tough guys in the middle - Jonny Chambers, Colby Bedford-Eatwell, Jack McLeish and Charlie Drysdale.
A great day’s rugby with every player knowing their role and fulfilling it exceptionally well. Parents and coach extremely proud.
Sevenoaks 3
Sevenoaks 3
Sevenoaks 3