Yarmouth Tour - Day 1
OG’s front up to everything thrown at them - including the weather
MATCH 1 - OG’s 10:5 St Neots
We started the opening match kicking with the wind and made good use of the extra ‘man’ from the outset. The St Neots pack looked strong and generally massive but were not effective against our rampant 8. Good pressure forced the mistake, and BenU collected and drive close to their line. The ball was recycled quickly and Paolo took up the mantle, driving through a sea of defenders to score. 1-0
The pressure continued and they were camped in their 22. BenL took the ball into the traffic and drove them back. Their scrambling defence was forced to concede penalty on their 5m line. Alejandro stepped up and smashed through to score.
The 10 minute half came to a close with OG’s having enjoyed most of the territory, but it soon changed on the restart. A coupe of missed tackles in mid field, and they released their speedsters. The ball got the wing and he run it home to halve the deficit.
The rest of the half was evenly matched with both teams making breaks but also falling foul of handling errors as the wind and the hail picked up. Both sides had chances but it looked like St Neots would draw level at the end until Ben ‘Gandalf’ Underwood decided ‘You Shall Not Pass’ and drove their flying winger into touch to bring the game to a close.
Parents cheered and clapped briefly and sped back to the safety and relative warmth of the gazebo.
MATCH 2 - OG’s 0 : 0 Lewes
A defensive master class from both sides produced 20 minutes of try free action. There was some action, but the ref and a Lewes mum got involved to curtail it quickly before it became the third kick-off of the match. Julian took a different parenting approach to congratulate Ollie ‘Flashpoint’ Weenan for his role. The ref opted to ensure an even match by testing his whistle as TJ broke through so he could then tell all to play on. The OG crowd politely applauded him giving up his time to help in the tournament. Then went back to the sloe gin and huddles in the gazebo.
MATCH 3 - OG’s 20 : 0 Southend
OG’s returned to winning ways against Southend. Mark BB got in their heads before the game with some classic fake news about our performance, striking fear into their very being.
Playing with the wind again in the first half, Southend were immediately under pressure. They tried to run it out of their 22, only for Jamie to stop him in his tracks, steal the ball and feed Lyle. He took us back to his days on the wing, firing up the gas, sidestepping the first defender and cruising in to open the scoring.
The second try came quickly. Southend pushed into our half only for us to force a knock-on. From the scrum, Jake kicked long forcing their Full Back to turn. CJ was on the hunt and despite their 15’s best efforts, he was brought done in crowd pleasing style. He forced the penalty from which TJ took it on and was stopped just short. The ball came quick and Tom, looked at the handful of defenders in front of them, smiled and knocked them out the way to score under the posts.
Southend finally secured some possession and territory in the second half but could not breach a defence of superb resolve to hold them short on wave after wave of attack. They were awarded a scrum after an injury break, and sent the ball to their big man in the centre on the crash. Unfortunately, our line speed and his bad hands forced a knock-on. BenL kicked on from off the ground, and the speedsters set off. The ball was kicked on again, and then very generously helped towards the line by a Southend player for Christmas to have the simple task to pick up and put down.
From the restart there was time for one more try. A slick set of short passes drew the defenders and released Anson. He beat the last man easily and cruised over line. The game ended at 20-0 and the sun returned behind the clouds again.
The game was also notable for two injuries. Hopefully BenM recovers quickly and is able to deliver tomorrow as well as today. Whilst TJ suffered an intense but short lived injury that all the other players and watching fathers could empathise with whilst the mothers had slightly less understanding of the specific pain generated.
Day 1 was brought to a close by the spectacle of grown men trying to remember how the gazebo had been put up, so it could be taken down. How it survived the day in the tempest that we experienced is beyond contemplation. Hopefully it has one more day in it.
Now to a quiet table somewhere to analyse the day’s events and plan for day 2.
The table shows OG’s in 2nd place in the division - level on points with Braintree but 2 tried behind on points difference.

Yarmouth Tour - Day 2
A day of swinging low and swinging high
MATCH 1 - OG’s 0:5 East Grinstead
OG’s suffered their first defeat of the tournament against the eventual champions in a tough contest. The sides were evenly matched through the first half, which is not something that could be said about one of the EG’s collecting the ball with his back to BenU. The clearly apocryphal ‘irrestible force meets immovable object’ was disproven as their player, including most of his innards moved quite a lot. As the poor lad was helped off, bottom lip quivering and gasping for breath like a fairground goldfish, a supportive EG parent remarked “thats done us a favour, he isn't even our best scrum-half”
The second half continued to be tight, but we lost ground from a series of penalties. They broke across field to attack down our right side, but CJ took their winger into touch, and unluckily conceded a line out. They set up a maul which was defended well until a quick lack of concentration allowed one to break through the middle and score the only try of the match.
MATCH 2- OG’s 5:5 Braintree
We rallied to face the overnight leaders, Braintree, who started strongly. They camped on our line for sometime and thought they had scored only for Sam to get underneath to hold them off the ground. But they came again from the 5m scrum and scored int he corner to end the half.
The lads could have let their heads drop after defending so well and going behind, but came out strongly for the second half. We put a strong series of phases together to gain territory and forced a penalty. Jake kicked to the corner for Mark and Lyle to secure the line-out ball. Expecting a driving maul, Ollie dummied and tried to break through the pack. He was stopped short but Braintree infringed again for a 5m penalty. Jamie picked up the mantle and took on a number of their forwards to drive over and level the scores.
The rest of the match was spent camped near their try line but they defended well and were relieved to have the chance to recover the ball and kick it out to salvage the draw.
MATCH 3 - OG’s 0:15 Hertford
The expected grudge match turned into reality with a bad tempered 20 minutes between rivals. As the boys felt aggrieved by a few decisions going against them, Hertford took advantage of being given possession regularly to punch away at our defence to get deep into the OG’s half. We took their attacks on the chin until eventually they managed to cross the line. The ref brought the round to an end.
OG’s took their smelling salts and came out ready for round 2. We pushed forward into their 22 but were turned over and the ball was kicked long with the wind. BenU turned and chased to appear to touch the ball down behind our line for a restart. But the referee was some distance away so was lucky enough to be able to call upon a large section of the crowd for their recollection of events. They clarified with quite some certainty that the ball had been taken back and knocked on and some other offences to create an attacking 5m scrum. From which they scored. And then they scored again and with a total of 3 knockdowns, the referee had to bring the game to an end.
MATCH 4 - OG’s 25:5 Chesham
The boys were frustrated by the events of match 3 and vowed to take it out on the final opposition. They did it in style. A start fast created a scrum in midfield. BenL looped behind Jake onto the blindside and barrelled his way through their defence to opening the score.
The second try came shortly after the restart from an initial break by TJ across the pitch, feeding CJ to make gains on our right wing. Coming back across the pitch, Jake threw a long missed pass into the path of Dan in space. He sped away to double the lead.
Chesham pushed back hard and would have scored but for a superb covering tackle by TJ to bring down a winger who thought he couldn’t be caught. They did pull back a try soon after thanks to some disarray in the defence and a couple of missed tackles to end the half at 10:5.
The second half was one way traffic. CJ started things off well with a burst through 3 defenders to cruise in. Jake then dummied to pass, kicked through for the ball to sit up perfectly to collect and score a super individual effort. The final score went to BenL again following a few calls of ‘give it to me’. His call was proven to be right as he drove through their defence again to force the 5th and final try.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE LAST TOUR
Certainly not the ‘Fatty burger’ from the Istanbul up the road. No-one should even see that picture let alone order it.
No ‘player of the tour’ as the coaches decided all players stepped up and contributed well in all games.
The tour song brought the u-14’s home in their semi-final.
Hertford were happy to win their cup final. They might have won the battle but they lost the war as OG’s came third overall behind EG and Braintree.
Jamaican rum appears to be quite strong following a straw poll of those who tried it ad can still speak. Sloe whisky seems popular too (www.englishwhisky.co.uk just off the A11 near Thetford on the way home by the way).
Will tried a box kick and opinions range within our caravan from ‘mildly’ to ‘extremely’ successful.