Another Great Day for Braintree U8's

The first signs of spring met the boys when they turned up for the Hadleigh tournament. The first time the U8s had played a tournament at this club although two recent friendlies had shown the hosts to be tough competitors and the boys would have to be on the top of their game to have a chance. Also playing for the Plate and Cup were other new teams for the boys including Ipswich, Woodbridge, Mistley and Harwich.

The rounds started well with both the yellow and red teams performing well under the sunshine. It's really pleasing to see the boys learning 2nd phase play, working in close support of each other as proper teams. Their tagging was as always tenacious!

Both teams advanced to the finals of both the Cup and the Shield. In the Cup the boys faced the favorites, host team Hadleigh who were confident they could beat us. The boys though really stepped up to the mark and gave the hosts a real shock, matching them try for try with a final score of 9-9 with some great examples of running rugby with good team work and passing. It was only on count back rules that the cup was awarded to Hadleigh.

In the Shield Braintree played Mistley with both teams were equally matched and both were hungry to win, it started well Braintree turned over Mistley for a forward pass and then Mistley turned Braintree over for a knock on, Mistily scored the first try and it was now down to Braintree to step up, it was a quick try for Braintree and it was tit for tat scoring tries like this all the way to half time.

In the second half it was nail biting with some brilliant rugby being played by both teams in their attack, support and defense play was excellent, at the final whistle both teams try counters agreed 6-6 but on the referees final decision he scored Braintree 5 & Mistley 6 this was down to a try not being awarded to Braintree unbeknown to both teams scorers, both coaches were unhappy with the final decision but in all games the referees decision is final and all the parents and coaches on both teams felt for the Braintree boys.

Both teams can hold their heads high, it has to be said that our boys played their hearts out, we had no subs like the other teams so they were constantly playing over 5 matches. It was an outstanding achievement and they both bought home silverware at the end of the festival.

Finally we would like to thank all the parents, brothers and sisters, and dogs for spending another day supporting our u8 boys. We are immensely proud of their achievements and their team spirit!