PETERSFIELD FESTIVAL 2009
Zulu’s Report:
The Petersfield Festival gave our developing U9's Zulu's team the chance to flex their skills having undergone radical and significant change from TAG in U8's last year. The team were anxious to deploy the new contact skills and show their prowess against formidable opposition and included James Barden, Matt Thompson, AlIstair Sheldon, Ben Ringrose-Voase, Louis Elston, Jonathan Ratcliffe, Jack Smith, Jake Haldenby, Harry Goldman, Kaja Jacobs, Luca, Matthew Eves, and Ruth Harvey.
Our first engagement against Haywards Heath saw a promising start with some nervous initial contact. Good initial passing saw Jake Haldenby complete a 30m sprint along touch for our first try. Another fantastic run, beating 3 opposition tackles after a great ball steal by Jack Smith notched up the second score A measured response from Haywards Heath resulted in a 10-10 draw and great positive momentum for the second game.
The next match against Chichester saw a step change in loose play as the Zulu's gained confidence. An early steal from Jack 'the ball pincher' Smith created a great scoring opportunity for Alistair Sheldon, Good support from Jonanthan Ratcliffe, James Barden and Matt Thompson, created a further try for Alastair Sheldon. Despite a lift in Chichester's game the Zulu's defence was solid with significant possession resulting in further tries for Alastair Sheldon, to complete his hatrick, and James Barden. Chichester could not respond and Zulu's had a clean scoresheet with a 20-0 Victory.
Zulu's old foes, Gosport & Fareham were our next targets and a recent encounter at shared training proved they were formidable opposition. Zulu's game again stepped up with massive tackling from Alastair Sheldon, Ben Ringrose-Voase and Matthew Eves to keep them away from our try line. Good mauling and possession created a blinding forwards marathon for James Barden who slinked past 4 tackles and scored in the corner celebrity stylee. Alastair Sheldon followed with another as the opposition crumbled and Zulu's took the game away 20-0 winners. Great support from Harry Goldman, Ruth Harvey and Louis Elston in the backs line and another solid defensive performance from Matthew Eves at Fullback secured another clean sheet.
Andover came to the next game against a fired up Zulu's team gaining little possession in the first half. Fantastic tackling, Great rips from Matt Thompson and Jack Smith both saw tries converted by Alastair Sheldon, Jonathan Ratcliffe and Jack Smith leaving Andover trailing 30-0 by halftime. After resting some key players in the second half, Andover gained some momentum and recovered two tries to finish 30-10.
With no rest Zulu's weighed in with Farnham for our final game. A gutsy first half with great defensive play seeing punishing tackles from Matt Thompson, Matthew ‘made from granite’ Eves, Ben Ringrose-Voase and Alastair Sheldon saw no points either way. Luca Toni and Jack Smith almost got away to score in the second half but very tired legs and a rested Farnham were too much for the Zulu's and Farnham came away winners. Jonathan Ratcliffe put in a strong performance at prop. A late injury saw Louis Elston retired and Kaja Jacobs stepped in and held up the defence well.
A great overall performance saw Zulu's second in the pool losing out to the CUP game and winners by a single try. It was a great final performance from the team, despite fatigue and playing 3 games in 45 minutes. Some great lose play and mauling by the forwards and spirited support play from the backs were not enough to secure the Plate win. Overall a great team performance and a credit to the club. Well done chaps.
Warriors Report:
The Petersfield Festival saw the first competitive outing for the U9's Petersfield Warriors playing full contact. The day started with the squad consisting of Henry Dodds, Ben Dodds, Tom Land, James Vernon Smith, Timothy Troth, Matthew Evans, Joseph Chads, Thomas Cowley, Tommy Matthews, Thomas Ford, Jonathon Blumlein and Sam Johnson all excited and looking forward to the days competition.
Their first match was against Portsmouth and they got of to an excellent start with good passing and tackling as a team. Henry Dodds gave a tackling masterclass, playing well above his height and weight. The warriors run out 10-0 winners with Tom Land finishing off two good team tries.
Next up were Chichester and the Warriors put in another good team performance. The first half saw Chichester using their pack better driving Petersfields back and scoring the only try of the match. In the second half Petersfield learnt their lesson's and had the upper hand driving Chichester back, sadly to no avail in a very tightly fought match. The warriors third match against Andover provided another close competition. The final score was 5 - 10 to Andover, but again there was excellent rugby played. Ben Dodds had an inspired performance, tackling all over the pitch and stealing the ball from a maul and running two thirds of the pitch to score an excellent individual try.
Haywards Heath were the Warriors next opponents in our last group game and sadly they proved to be worthy opponents and run in three unopposed tries running out 15 - 0 winners. The best was definitely saved for last in the Vase final. The best team performance of the day by the Warriors who eventually won the final 20-5. Everybody put all their effort in with tackling running and passing. Timothy Troth run through a wall of players to score a try, Matthew Evans and Ben Dodds finished off with tries after two good team plays and Tom Land scored an individual try running most of the pitch to score in the corner.
