U9's have a Grand Day out at Mini's Festival

With our home festival clashing with Sutton Coldfield, Staffordshire Festival and Kings Norton at Under 9 level in the run up to the day we were unsure how many teams were going to be able to turn up. Opening the curtains to snow on Saturday morning meant I truly feared that our home tournament would prove to be a bit of a damp squib.

How wrong I was! The excellent work of Eugene Mcdaid and his team in organising the various elements, some dry weather and the presence of two teams from Bournville, Old Yardleians and Old Edwardians set the stage for an absorbing, highly competitive set of fixtures where it was clear that no team could look forward to an easy fixture.

The Camp Hill fixtures went as follows:

Camp Hill V Bournville A:

FT: 3-1

Camp Hill Scorers: Harry Ingram-2, Finn Clarke-1.

To regularly get 30-50 players turning up is a testament to Bournville’s excellent facilities at the University of Birmingham but more importantly to the passion, organisation and excellence of their Under 9 coaches. Having played the previous week, we were under no illusions as to how difficult a task the two games against Bournville would be. They are very well organised, have a very good defence and are capable of scoring tries from both their strike runners and through team passing. It was a mark of our respect for them that we decided to go with our most experienced squad and to limit the number of substitutions in this game to try and get a good start to the tournament and ensure we kept our shape to keep Bournville at bay.

Having the previous week been guilty of being a bit one dimensional in our attacking play, the lads had obviously listened to our instructions to look to pass and move the ball into in the first half of this game. The unforeseen consequence was that we were probably guilty of playing a bit too much rugby in the first half! The under 9 rules where you turn over on the seventh tackle gives you an opportunity to run hard, make yards and then hopefully find space out wide to score. In a half of real quality from both sides, it was attempting to move the ball near our try line that lead to a dropped ball and the Bournville team were able to capitalise on to score and take a lead into half time.

HT: 0-1.

The half time team talk was simple. We’d played the best I had seen them all season and they just needed to keep doing what they were doing. A score early in the second half from Harry settled the nerves and was followed by an excellent finish from Finn Clarke. Bournville came back strongly to their credit and it took some excellent, last ditch defending to keep them out. There were some hearts in mouths when, having forced a turnover near our own line, we again knocked on trying to play our way out from deep, but some heroic defence just about managed to keep out Bournville. Thankfully, from the resultant turnover, Harry was able to find the smallest of gaps in the middle of the Bournville defence and win the footrace to score and get us over the line. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that this is the best we have played all year, and Bournville played a huge part in pushing us to these heights.

Next up:

Camp Hill v Old Yardleians RFC

FT: 3-5.

Camp Hill Scorers: Harry Ingram-2, Ethan Draper-1

Old Yardleians may not have the numbers that Bournville can call upon but their squad is well balanced, full of talent, well drilled and the time spent together playing week in, week out shows. With Camp Hill having a squad of 14 and only 7 starting places it was time to change the team up from the one that worked so hard against Bournville. With this being Old Yardleians first game of the day, we were up against their freshest team, who were to go unbeaten on the day. Whilst the game was again competitive, our substitutions lead to a small drop in the quality of our organisation in defence which was to prove costly. Although we did improve as the game went on, most noticeably Ethan with a great try and tackling to show what he is capable of, Old Yardleians ran out worthy winners 3-5.

Camp Hill V Bournville B:

Camp Hill 5- Bournville B 3

Camp Hill Try scorers: Harry Ingram 3, Henry Atkinson 1, Ben Revell 1.

Our third game of the day saw the introduction to the starting line-up of Thomas Pitfield. Having patiently waited for a starting position, we were treated to a couple of text book, below the waist, ring of steel tackles. The subsequent, exultant, arms in the air celebration of these tackles brought one of the bigger cheers from the Camp Hill parents on the sidelines and were a pleasure to see. Thom has now set his own benchmark for next season!

In another tough encounter with a number of players needing to be substituted a hat-trick from Harry along with a couple of great efforts from both Henry and Ben Revell were enough to see us home.

Camp Hill V Old Edwardians:

Camp Hill 3- Old Edwardians 5

Camp Hill Try Scorers- Harry Ingram 3.

It was clear from Old Edwardians first game against Bournville B, that they had both recruited well and that the hard work of their coaches had paid off handsomely since we’d visited them at the outset of the season. It was clear that this was going to be a tough, final match. With this being our final game of the season pre Tour it seemed appropriate to make sure that all of our players got a half. So the plan was to start each half with a different starting seven. Old Edwardians started strongly to go 2-0 up and despite the efforts of all 14 of our squad it was a lead that was to prove unassailable. Harry was able to score another hat-trick of tries before being forced off with a rapidly closing eye and it was symptomatic of the spirit of the day that he was clapped off by the supporters of all the clubs attending.

To summarise, I hope it was felt by all of the players, parents and coaches that attended that the day was an enjoyable experience. I’m extremely proud of the way that our players competed and conducted themselves. Likewise, it was a pleasure to have the company of Bournville, Old Edwardians and Old Yardleians. The quality of the rugby on display shows how far all of these teams have progressed throughout the year and should this continue these players will all push each other on to a very high standard. On a weekend when Moseley were relegated from the Championship, it shows that the standard of the youngsters coming through in the local area is thriving.

We look forward to seeing you all next season.

All the best,

Danny Ingram