U10Bs Middlesex Festival Report

The U10 Bs had a successful day at the premier event of the season, the Middlesex County Festival 2013.

Our preparations were disrupted by the unfortunate late withdrawal of players which meant TRFC pulled out of the Development event,and split the original B squad to the A event and a revised team into the B Festival. Thanks to all for their support of this last minute change.

So a new squad of Luke Greenall, Marc Fusil, Luke Jopling, Joshua Abbott-Baptiste, Jonty Stegmann, Patrick McDonnell, Ruari Kavanagh, Oscar Rounding, Jack Walsh, Alex Gilchrist, Elliot Allen, Madeleine Gilheany, Tom Heptonstall and Sasha Clayton took the field for Teddington Bs. I say field, we were in the 'infamous' Pitch 12 which is not part of Ealing RFC and is at best a quagmire, perhaps more accurately described as a swamp on a hill dotted with a few cones.

In our first Pool D match we led Wasps B until the last play when we conceded an equaliser to end at 1-1. We were stayed out in the mud to face a fresh Hackney Bulls A team in a back-to-back fixture.
This was a very tough battle which took some refereeing, to be polite. We deserved a draw for our dogged play, though a late try conceded meant we lost 1-3. As Hackney A beat Wasps B 4-0 we were runners up in Pool D and went into the main Shield.

Next up in the Shield QF was Finchley B, who had run in two large victories in Pool C. We dominated the game, thankfully played on a proper pitch with occasional blades of real grass, though drew 1-1.
This meant on count-back we dropped down an event to compete for the Plate, although Finchley coaches, Mourinho like, told us the best team went out and we were much better than their Pool C rivals.

The Plate SF threw up a re-match against our Middlesex Festival nemesis, Grasshoppers. For those of us with long memories (and I include the kids), we recall all too well our U7 and U9 Middlesex Plate Finals that were both lost to Grasshoppers. Revenge was sweet as we produced our best performance of the day to win 6-0.

The Plate Final matched us against London Welsh B. This was a game too far for brave Teddington and a strong Welsh side ran-out 5-0 winners. So for the 3rd time in 4 seasons this age groups' B squad left the Middlesex Festival as Plate Runners-Up.

Well done to the kids (and parents) for braving grim weather, our forwards and scrum half had to play a lot of rugby, while our backs rotated frequently as we had 5 subs. All things considered, an outstanding level of commitment and a well deserved Runners-Up medal at the end of the day.

Thanks to Tony Kavanagh, Oli McDonnell, Jamie Abbott-Baptiste and Olivier Fusil for getting the boys match ready (and warm).