Game, set and match for Teddington U11 B at Wimbledon

A team composed of Louis D, Oscar R, Richard H, Ruairi K, David B, Harvey H, Marc F, Patrick McD, Josh B, Madeleine G, James G, Sacha C, Alex G, Lucas H started the new U11 season on a good note at Wimbledon today.

The cobwebs had to be a bit shaken off to get the rugby engine going after a long summer break without competition. The team's first game was against a good Esher team. I'm not sure what they give them to eat over there but we should have a bit of that, as all their boys look considerably bigger than ours. However we didn't refuse the physical contact and performed well in a difficult encounter. We left the pitch with a 0-7 defeat but the way the boys played showed some early promises.

We built on some good intentions with a gritty performance against host team Wimbledon. Wimbledon was supported by a a very large, partisan and raucous crowd (well at least all 15 of them). We pushed them well, several times camping, in the first half, close to their try line but without finding the gap. They came back from the break, lifted by the crowd (by now joined by one or two dogs) and forced us to defend for dear life. The commitment too protect our line was immense and we left the pitch unbowed on a 0-0 draw. It is worth noting that Wimbledon went on to play in the final vs our auld enemy Roslyn Park.

Our next game, against local Warriors saw us turning up the pressure. We delivered a solid performance, dominating the scrum convincingly, passing the ball well to shape some good attacks. We dominated much more than the 5-0 score line indicated and built on some serious confidence throughout the game.

We took that confidence and momentum with us in our next and final pool game against Camberley. By now our scrum was transformed in a mean machine, our backs were inspired and our rugby was flowing (well, we nearly passed the ball to the wings several times…). This resulted in a convincing 17-5 victory.

We soon found out that we had to wait for the final results to discover our fate. After a few nervous minutes we learned that Wimbledon had secured top of the group and us second place.

This led to a well deserved plate final against Old Reigatians. There was in fact nothing old with them as their passing was very skilful indeed. Our boys must have felt the weight of the previous matches in the legs and the countless bruises took their toll. We appeared disjointed and slightly out of sorts. This rapidly led to a difficult end of the day, losing 0-21. It is worth noticing however that our second half display was much better than the first one but that mountain was too high too climb.

All in all, well done to all who played today, a good start of the season. A big thanks to Tony, Nick, Ollie and all the other parents for their support throughout the day.

Please look for a communication later this week announcing selections for next week's festival

Thanks

Olivier