Great Play from A & B U9s @ London Irish Festival

Brilliant end to the season!

The B’s found themselves in a tournament where several clubs were entering their A’s, and the standard was generally very high. They won 3 of their 4 group games, and only lost one as a result of a contentious try which even the opposition coach thought was wrong. So by a whisker, they missed out on the final but played in the 3rd/4th playoff against London Irish B (the Shield final) – which they won with a late breakaway try from Sam O’Kelly. 3rd place in a festival of this size is a great achievement.

The A’s won every group game (playing some very powerful rugby, and with several flowing team moves), and ended up against the hosts in the final. Having led from the first minute, they held their lead until the 9th minute of the 6 minute second half (!) when Irish finally scored an equalising try. It was a VERY physical and hard fought game. Then randomly it was decided that the cup would be awarded on the toss of a coin, rather than the usual count back of results. My day’s contribution was to lose the toss, so Irish were awarded the cup – but we were given the winners medals and are named as joint winners. So three festival wins in the first season of contact rugby (Guildfordians, Esher and London Irish).

Well done to all the players - a great end to the season!

Head Coaches Dean and Barry