Chippenham Chiefs U9 began slowly but went through the day undefeated and used their top two inches to dominate the final and take the cup in a well organised festival. Thank you Keynsham RFC.

Starting slowly against Keynsham, the Chiefs controlled large parts of the match, but couldn’t find their spread in defence or attack 1-1 after determined tackling by Tom, Edgar and Finlay, with a fine try by Theo. Game 2 against Lydney again the Chiefs dominated much of the play, but couldn’t find their flow, the tackling was much improved from RWB festival with Warwick and Luke stepping up to crunch Lydney back. A try by Jonny and Theo settled it 2-1.

Game 3 Chew Valley put a lot of pressure on, but again dominance of possession through pressure tackling by Tom, Edgar and Harry gave Fin the space to score after a barnstorming run by Alfie. Game 4 ended 1-1 against the team we would pip to the final. The story was much the same with possession high in Chippenham’s favour and the pressure defence led by captain Fin squeezed Clifton all game. Another try by Theo put us in control, but the lack of defensive spread again cost us and Clifton equalised at the end.

Game 5 v Cleve2 we really started to flow and move the ball around. The handling and passing work from U8 started to come back. A 4-1 score line with tries for Fraser, Alfie, Harry and Johnny settled it. Level on tries scored and points with Clifton, we went through to the final having conceded less tries.

In the Cup Final the Chiefs had their best game against Cleve1 driving their opponents over the dead ball line in one play. The spread was so much better in both aspects and the coaches were smiling. The wider passing game, looking for space finally found the boy playing some decent rugby which we knew they were capable of. Fin controlled from scrum half, firing out a long pass for Theo to cut back scorch in the corner. A fantastic try saving tackle by Fraser just before half time seemed to take the sprit out of Cleve, who were just having a purple patch. In the second half Alfie made another bust, freeing his arms to release Johnny to the line. Tom, Edgar and Warwick tackled like dervishes and Harry stood wider to take a pass and sealed it with his pace to make it 3-0.

An intense final, shown by having to ask a Grandfather and grandson from Cleve to the old classic sneak of swinging a walking stick on the edge of the pitch.

Chiefs White also enjoyed their day, saving their best match until last when everyone cheered them on to drive Keynsham back repeatedly with great tackling from captain Nat, Bill, Callum, Archie, Josh, Cameron, Nathan, Henry and Theo. Moments of the day were new player Ella getting bashed in the tackle and coming up for more smiling, followed by Harry’s length of the field weaving run where many of the crowd thought he was going to go past the dead ball and into another post code – a great try to seal the win over Keynsham. Well done everyone!

A really well run festival, with scores updated, which you were allowed to see so you had an idea where you were in the table.

N.B. The Chiefs is our team name for this group of players’ right through to development squad.