U7s TringRugby Mini Festival Review

What a day Sunday was - both in terms of weather and rugby! I would like to start off by saying, on behalf of the coaching team, how proud we all were of all of our squads. Every player gave everything on the pitch, and I am pleased to say that we ended up U7 CUP FINALISTS and C/D GROUP TOURNAMENT WINNERS! It doesn't get much better than that!

Photos can be seen on the club website (use your membership login) here

In terms of each team...

Our Cheetahs, many of whom had not played in a tournament before, performed really well against well-drilled Harpenden and OAs sides. They ran in plenty of tries and ended up third in their league. This is a great start to their tournament careers. A big well done to Callum D, Tom O, Charles H, Jaxon T, George D, Benedict S, Jack W, Henry P, Jake L and Hugo S.

To the delight of an enthusiastic crowd, the Leopards produced some fantastic rugby, making the most of their opportunities to score, and defending very solidly. At one point, I lost count of the tags that we took in one passage of play. This strong defence paid off, and the Leopards not only topped their league, they also ended WINNERS OF THE C/D TOURNAMENT! I have a nice piece of silverware to present at training on Sunday. In the meantime, the following players should all feel very proud of themseves: Finlee F, Charlie G, George L, Albert E, Josh G, Toby H, Ben B, Myles MJ, Liam E and Charlie P.

As Festival hosts we are in the position of being able to enter a B team in each age group. As Tring Festival is treated by all clubs as a rehearsal for the County Tag Festival in April, it is traditionally a tough outing for our B teams. Our Tigers, however, showed their class by finishing a very respectable third in their league. En route they defeated Bishops Stortford in an epic encounter which saw us come from behind to win by 9 tries to 7. The Tigers lost only two games, and one of those was against the eventual U7 Cup Winners. Their strong running both in attack and defence was noteworthy, and all the players did the Tring shirt proud. Well done to Eddie A, Ollie C, Ben P, Sam B, Oisin F, Jack J, Ollie L, Ben F, Charlie G and George TB.

The Lions played some of their best rugby of the season on Sunday. Right from the start, they played with determination and pace, stunning our opposition with early tries in each of our league games. Our strength in attack was simply overwhelming, and I am very pleased to say that, apart from a draw against Harpenden, we beat all of our league opponents. This booked us a place in the U7 Cup final, where we came up against a hugely talented Camelot side. Despite the Lions scoring five spectacular tries, the heat had taken its toll and it was one game too many for us. In short, the Lions lost only one game all day, and Andy and I were very proud to coach them all the way to U7 CUP RUNNERS UP. Go Lions! Very well done to Ollie H, Oakley T, Ollie B, Ben K, Lewis F, Luke E, Sam H, Adam Y, Angus H and Adam K.

Tring Festival is a major event requiring huge input to run successfully. Without many helping hands it simply cannot happen, So I would like to take this opportunity to thank coaches Andy Yule, Giles Cadge, Charlie Perkin, Jon Hemlin, Jon Benton, Andy Parsons and Chris Snowdon for inspiring the players to play as well as they did, refs Ben Painter, Dom Lemonde and Giles Cadge for keeping order on the pitch, pitch marshalls Joe Evans, Carol Kennedy-Filer, Debbie Lea, Jim Filer and Anthony Eames for keeping things moving, and "cleaner- uppers" Kate Hardy, Anthony Eames (+ elder son) and Andy and Steph Yule. Also thanks to Mark Taylor, Ian Ashton, Jim Johnston and many others who very kindly offered to assist but who were not actually required on the day.

Yours in rugby,

Mike

Mike Kearney
(Very Proud) U7 Head Coach