First Festival of the Year

Chichester Done By Two tournament
5th October 2014

Expectations were high as the under 10s set off for Chichester for their first festival of the season, early on Sunday 5th October. With 14 team members available for the annual Chichester foray, lucky coach Rob had a full complement of boys to take to the seaside city for the Done By Two tournament.

Facing a strong field, the Under 10s were a little nervous in testing out their new rugby skills and working with the new rules for this year, but the eager team was also excited as they faced their first opponents, Bognor for their opening game.

Winning the toss, Horsham began strongly with Will passing to Codie for the first try of the season. Will himself ran in a second and the half finished with our boys 2-1 ahead,

The second half was tight, with Bognor equalising, Gus, Toby and Ben making ground and linking play, and with almost the last move of the game Harvey was unlucky to have his try disallowed for touching the ball down just over the dead ball line.

A 2-2 draw, with Horsham unlucky not to win. The boys were naturally disappointed but were picked up and dusted off by their coach.

Coach Rob’s message: “Rugby is a bit like life – full of disappointments but there’s always another game to play”.

The second game against Hove was a tight affair, both teams being strong defensively and George, Gus and Max looking for a way through with a standout moment being Nick flattening an opponent and a touchline flag, all in one move! Nick made it through but there was no hope for the flag...
Hove led 1-0 at half time and with the first possession following the restart they broke through a lax defensive line to go ahead 2-0.

That’s how it finished with Horsham unable to turn their possession to points despite good work by Daniel and Billy regularly securing possession in the rucks and running hard into their opponents and George weaving patterns looking for a way through.

Motivator Rob’s message: We took some knocks but we’re learning – we are letting little things upset us but we have to pick ourselves up and get on with it.”

Our boys remained close to their packed lunches for the third game versus the hosts, Chichester A, who ran in six unanswered tries. Kai took a hit and the boys never got into their stride.

Philosopher Rob’s message: If I say there wasn’t much difference from last time you’d laugh but it’s about confidence. You allowed it to be too easy for them but if we look for the spaces and put people into the gaps then we’ll have a happy ending”.

And so Soothsayer Rob’s words came true, as in the fourth game against Worthing Horsham turned the attention and focus back on.

First Toby breaks the defensive line to go over for the first try, and confidence soars. Max, Ben and Codie make some big hits, possession is secured by Daniel, Gus and Billy and George and Nick keep running ball back at their opponents.

With no opportunities to break through, Worthing cannot get back into the match and there are chances at the other end with Max close to an interception and Harvey ripping away the ball. The 1-0 is well deserved and just reward for a day of hard endeavour.

Leader Rob: “What was the difference? You believed you could win and became different players, its all in the head, its all about small margins, and we finished on a high note.”

Many strong performances and player of the day was Codie; fast in attack, tenacious in the tackle and complete focus on the task in hand!

Well done everyone. Now for Crawley!!

Thanks to Laura Vallis for this brilliant write up!