Unbeaten dozen for Horsham U10s

All three Horsham teams returned with trophies as the Lions finished as plate winners in the A team competition, the Pumas finished as winners of the B team competition and the Tigers finished as plate winners of the B team competition.

Pumas

Team: Jolyon Crook, Arron West, Ethan Stoner, James Andrews, James 'the light' Knight, Jude Harding, Tom Sanders, Freddie Johnson, Harry Whapshott. Seb Maunder.

A very successful afternoon for the Pumas.

It was a tightly contested first game with only one try. Fortunately, Hove fumbled their only chance and it was a Pumas win.

The 2nd game was against the Haywards Heath B team that dismantled our Development Team in Farnborough. No such luck for them this time.

A tight but high scoring game which the Pumas won 4 tries to 3. Try of the tournament for the Pumas came from a Tom Sanders interception in that game.

The final pool game saw the Pumas take on the Chichester B side. It was a very close 1st half but the Pumas ran away with the 2nd half winning 6 tries to 2.

That was it, the Pumas were in the Pulborough festival final for the 2nd time in 2 years. Could they go one better than last year?

The feared Archie from Worthing was not playing though and this team had been lucky to get a draw against the Tigers so the Pumas were confident.

The answer came quickly and the Pumas were 2 tries up within minutes. They were eventual winners by 4 tries to 2.

The defining moment came near the end of the game when one of the Worthing heavies got the ball and was flying on a charging run. Seb Maunder stood his ground and delivered a crunching tackle flooring both to the gasps of the spectators....the final whistle was then blown. That was it. The first B team trophy for a Horsham U10 team. Very happy faces!

Tigers

Team: Dylan Bennett, Isabelle Dunn, William Gibbons-Burroughs, Jack Marks, Ben Mason, Rhys Merola, Freddie Muggeridge, George Rimer, Mason Taylor and Jonathan Webber.

An unbeaten Tigers team came away from the Pulborough festival as plate winners for the B team competition following a good day's work.

The team started with a hard-fought battle against a physical Worthing B side. On his debut Dylan streaked down the wing to break the deadlock but pressure from Worthing led to one of their players crashing over to level the scores. That was how it remained as the Tigers couldn't summon up a winning score.

Second up was a see-saw battle against Pulborough B. Early bursts from their main strike runner saw the Tigers 1-0 down and on the back foot. However, a couple of well-worked tries shortly before the break saw the Tigers take a half-time lead. An early score in the second half looked like it would make things comfortable but the home team took advantage of some weak Tigers' tackling to tie the scores at 3-3. The Tigers responded to take the lead again but couldn't hold on as Pulborough scored late on to leave the Tigers with a frustrating second draw.

The final group match against East Grinstead saw Rhys at his dynamic best as he rocketed through for several tries. Although EG stayed in touch the final score of 6-3 was enough to enable a second place finish in the pool.

The play-off match against Hove B was a tight affair. The Tigers edged to a 2-0 lead by early in the second half only for Hove to pull one back. Strong defence kept out Hove and the score finished at 2-1.

Well done to all the Tigers players - both the old hands that led the way and the new players that came in and contributed to a strong team effort.

Lions

The Lions finished as runners-up in their pool on count-back after winning two matches and drawing the other. They went on to win their pay–off to return with the plate..

Further details to follow...