Old Elthamians U7s Festival

Old Elthamians U7s Festival – Four Seasons in One Day - Whitgiftian Warlocks and Wolverines

Two U7 teams took to the field in the grounds of Eltham College to play four festival matches each.

The sun shone, the wind blew, and the hail hit us in the face. But luckily our brand new Whitgiftian gazebo provided sanctuary (see photo)!

The festival was very well organised, with all teams playing in a great spirit.

The Warlocks played two teams from Old Elthamians, and one apiece from Gravesend and Maidstone.

Our team of four Warlocks threw caution to the wind in each match and chucked the ball about with wild abandon. Sometimes this paid off with great tries, sometimes this resulted in handovers to the opposition!

Comfortable victories against Gravesend and Maidstone were punctuated by a close win and a close loss against Old Elthamians. OE’s were well organised, particularly in defence, and supported their team mates well. They demonstrated the power of moving up in a defensive line and at one point were tagging so furiously that they had forced us back two thirds of the pitch.

The Warlocks were:

Stefanos – Brings massive energy to the team in defence and has added a nifty sidestep to his attacking play which saw him bag a lot of tries.
Eliza – Hard, straight running and great support play. Made a habit of charging down the right wing to great effect.
Henry – This was Henry’s first taste of festival rugby and he looked like he enjoyed it! Main thing to work on is to stay behind the attacking player with the ball, so that you can receive a pass from them if they are tagged.
Xavier – Organised the team well and demonstrated good footwork and passing. Try to turn on the afterburners once you are through the gap.
Things for us to work on:

Defence – We need to run up together in a line. More often than not, two players would run forward, whilst two hung back fragmenting our wall. We also need to think about protecting our wings, as all of the opposition tried to run around our wall and on several occasions succeeded.

Attack – Protect the ball. Keep passes simple and make them to hands.

Well done to all!

Coach Nick

The Wolverines

The Wolverines, prepped by their pre match snack of Caramel Digestives (thank you Kai’s Mum!) took this tournament in their stride. In the 4 games they played, each player showed great positional awareness, a steely determination and best of all, sportsmanship!

New Ash Green were our opposition for the first game which was a one-sided affair. The Wolverines attacking well, each player making runs, having a supporting runner nearby to take the pass which usually resulted in a try being scored. The defence was solid, again working as a unit to rush the opposition when they had possession and forcing them to turn over.

The next game against Vigo was more evenly matched and some of the play to watch from both teams was incredible. The Wolverines stuck to their task well, working hard to stop Vigo’s runners and when we got the ball, managed to run down to the other end of the pitch very quickly.

Our third match was probably the best attacking rugby we played. Simply a joy to watch from the side-lines! This opposition were no pushovers, but it seemed every time the Wolverines got the ball, we broke the defensive line, set up an attacking formation very quickly, and within two passes we had scored in the corner.

In the final game, the team showed both their attacking flair and defensive discipline. Again and again the team set themselves up to score, the player with ball always had a teammate nearby to pass to and nearly every attack led to a try. Defensively they rushed up like the first match and continued tagging, even when standing on our try line.

The Wolverines were :

Kai : Brought his game face to this tournament, showing no mercy with his tagging but it was his attacking runs that really pleased. A strong runner who made sure he finished off the team moves, scoring in the corners at least four times.
Tristan : Another who showed no mercy with this tagging, in particular our final match stopped the opposition right on our try line and started another attack. Also a deceptively quick player who made decent yards when starting our attacks.
Ayaan M : The mini Fijian! A great supporting runner, always on the shoulder of his team mates, running with the ball in one hand and diving over the try line. Worked well in organising the team when defending.
Alby : A very strong player, who rushed up to opposition to break their play, usually getting a turnover. His attacking runs took the team into the opposition’s half, showing his ability to get through defences very easily and timed his passes very well.
A great tournament for the Wolverines who played some exceptional rugby!

Coach Abdul