The Chippenham U8 Chiefs withstood an onslaught from the mighty Sevenoaks to triumph 8-7 and lift the West Coast Festival Trophy on an intense weekend of rugby.

The tournament began at a cracking pace. Teams from Barnstaple, Shipston on Stour, Moseley, Beaconsfield, Camp Hill, plus the best 30 players from Sevenoaks (out of an age group of 80) were all there to push for the title.

The Chiefs had a tough 1st match with Sevenoaks B, starting slowly but with Alfie hitting the spaces and offloading quickly a half time deficit was turned around with tries from Theo and Joe. The Chiefs had more control in the 2nd pool match with Sevenoaks D, leading 5-0 at half time with fierce tagging from Joe and Finlay causing panic. A whole team Chiefs half time change brought Sevenoaks back into the match at 5-4, but penetrating runs by Giles and Callum kept the Chiefs noses in front at the end. Match 3 with Barnstaple had crisper passing and support from Nat and Warwick, which led to fine scores from Henry, Theo and Joe. Billy and Finlay successfully drove the defence forward, to shut the door on the home team. By match 4 with Camp Hill strong defence again was proving the difference. Luke, Fin and Alfie pressed up and turnovers led to scorching scores from Theo, Giles, Nat and Tom.

Day 2 began with the final pool match with Beaconsfield, Will ran the length to dive score ala Joe Rokocoko. Strong running and quick passing from Luke, Finlay, Warwick, Alfie, Henry and Billy, led to excellent scores from Callum, Theo, Nat and Tom. The Semi-Final with Sevenoaks A was always going to be much tougher, pressure defence and heads up play was the difference. Finlay pulled the strings at scrum half, mazy runs from Alfie, Giles, Callum and Will enabled Joe, Theo, Fin and Tom to score and gain the Chiefs a place in the final.

The Final versus Sevenoaks C (who had comprehensively won all their games thus far) was even more intense, very noisy and with one of the organisers now refereeing with different interpretations, there resulted in early turnovers for hand offs and 1 hand on ball for example. Both teams ran the ball hard at the spaces and used fine handling to create overlaps. The pressure defences were tough to break down and the referee was evidently quite shocked at how much both teams ‘wanted’ this one. A scorching run by Joe, set up Tom to set the Chiefs on their way. Joe, Tom and Alfie combined to set up Fin to keep the scores level. Will’s mazy running, Fin and Henry’s passing set up 2 tries each for Theo and Joe. It was so tight and noisy that the organiser lost patience, stopped the match and told the crowd to all go into the stand on the far side. Will and Giles scored after Warwick, Tom and Nat had taken it up. It was level pegging all the way through the match, the difference in the end was the Chiefs adapted to the referee more quickly and a final turnover resulted in Giles running another fantastic angle to seal the win. All 13 children ran onto the pitch as if they had won the world cup, then calmed by coaches to shake hands with and photo with the bitterly disappointed Sevenoaks who had helped produce the toughest tournament of the season.

The Chiefs are looking to recruit more players from September for next season’s move up to under 9 and our transition to contact licensing the children. We have a fantastic group of parents, children and coaches all working towards developing the whole child, through a mixture of challenges and fine coaching. The first three sessions are free to try, you will not be disappointed, except maybe with the weather!