Before we went to this game we knew it would be a big ask for our team and so we chose to take only our year 2 boys to play St Josephs under 8 team of year3 boys. It turned out to be a good call as St Joes were as physical and aggressive as we have met this season and our boys were visibly taken a back by the nature of the game and we were quickly 3 tries down. At this point I had to reset the bar for our boys and have an important pep talk about how sometimes if a team is aggressive we need to get mad back, in the spirit of the game. Thankfully our boys to a man really dug in and started to respond with more effort and more toughness. Harrison Pendlebury lead the way and was rewarded with a try. The other boys responded and Harry Milnes scored twice before Toby Barraclough joined the try scoring list. Our awards went to Cormac O'Brien for top tackler as he was one of the boys who also lead the way for the rest to follow. Finlay Hobson was awarded the coaches award for his defensive efforts and toughness whilst Harrison Pendlebury was awarded man of the match for his efforts.
This was the most pleasing game I have seen the boys play because they could have easily just gone through the motions and let the other team do as they wished but they dug in and showed great character and tested St Joes in the 2nd half just finishing 5-4 down on the scoring and putting in a great effort on defence. All the coaches and parents were very proud of the performance and this game will stand them in good stead for future such occasions.
Well done boys you were superstars!