Wasps A Tournament
Sunday 17th Aprilby Ray Hayes-Brown & C.Brogan
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Wasps “A” Tournament Under 8
Sunday 17th April
By Ray Hayes-Brown & Cormac Brogan
Windsor A Team.
Toby Clarke (Capt), Jamie Hayes-Brown, Ben Tidey, Loui Brogan, Jack Wilkins, Myles Thorley, James Thorogood, Jake Perkins, Sammy Holden, Michael Ireland.
Going to the Wasps A Tournament was going a bit into the unknown, coming up against teams we had not played before. Wasps had the Tournament very well organised, and the warm sun and blue sky’s meant a good day was ahead. All the lads played very well, Captain, Toby Clarke lead the team by example and every player in the squad played their part in winning the competition, culminating in the final at Wasps Stadium.
Match 1 Drifters 10 v Windsor 35
Tries: Jack Wilkins 2, Toby Clarke 2, James Thorogood, Michael Ireland, Jamie Hayes-Brown.
The defending stood out in this game, getting the ball handed over each time holding Drifters back in their own half, Jack started the scoring after Sammy broke the line and unloaded the ball to let Jack sprint to the line 5-0 Windsor. Jamie went on a weaving run after being set up from a long Loui pass to make it 10-0 Windsor, again Windsor got the ball back on the 7 tag rule, and Immediately Michael Ireland weaved through the centre to score, Windsor 15-0. After a long period of pressure Drifters got one back to make it 15-5 Windsor.
Windsor’s captain Toby Clarke took a pass from Myles Thorley from the re-start to sprint over to make it 20-5, then after Windsor won the ball back from great defending on the 7 tag rule, Toby was off again at pace to make it 25-5 Windsor. At the re-start Drifters knocked on, James charged up the centre broke the line and passed to Jack to step over 30-5 Windsor. Drifters kept on working away and caught Windsor sleeping at the re-start to sprint for the Windsor line for 30-10, the Windsor coach loudly reminded the team of their defensive responsibility, which the lads responded to, the rest of the game was played in the drifters half, winning the ball back by tagging, which resulted in James Thorogood going on a great run up the middle to make the final score 35-10 Windsor.
Match 2 Worcester B 15 v Windsor 35
Tries: Jack Wilkins , Toby Clarke , James Thorogood, Jamie Hayes-Brown 2, Ben Tidey, Loui Brogan.
This match was very fast and even for most of the game, Windsor started the scoring with Jamie running down the wing from a good Jake Perkins pass, Worcester came back quickly to make it 5-5, Jack restored Windsor’s lead after some great support play and swapping pass’s in the middle 10-5. Worcester had some lads with pace and soon it was 10-10, Windsor’s tagging then started to make the difference, winning the ball back on the 7 tag rule lots of times enabled Ben Tidey to steal the ball in the middle and run for the line 15-10, again ball handed over and a set play breaking right for Jack to loop a long pass out for Jamie to take at pace and make it 20-10. Good tagging made Worcester drop the ball and Loui Brogan grabbed it and sprinted for the line 25-10.
Windsor pressure paid off again when Worcester knocked on, Ben picked up, referee played advantage for Ben to run on and make it 30-10, Worcester came back quickly from the re-start, splitting the line to make it 30-15, Toby Clarke then had the final say of the match, with some good support play Windsor made some quick passing along the line for Jamie to make the final pass to Toby on the loop over 35-15.
Match 3 Windsor 15 v Staines 15
Tries: Jack Wilkins, Toby Clarke, Loui Brogan
This match was going to be the hardest of all the pool games, and was going to be the two teams in the final later in the afternoon. After lots of tagging and no team scored for a long period of the half, Staines scored first after a knock on, three tags in the centre and they broke the line to sprint over for 5-0 Staines.
Toby Clarke then received a long pass from Sammy at the re-start to sprint down the line 5-5, Staines then came back quickly with some quick passing in the middle to make it 10-5 Staines. Lots of Windsor runs up the centre finally paid off when Myles sent Loui Brogan clear to make it 10-10. Windsor kept Staines back for a long period of time until they played some fine long passes out wide to score in the corner to make it 15-10 Staines. Time was running out and with Windsor looking at defeat for the first time Jake Perkins won the ball in the centre of the field and set Jack Wilkins off on a sprint to make it 15-15, for the whistle to go seconds later.
Match 4 Chinnor 5 v Windsor 30
Tries: Michael Ireland, Jamie Hayes-Brown 2, Sammy Holden, James Thorogood, Ben Tidey
After the fright of nearly losing the Staines match, Windsor started quickly against Chinnor with some quick passing and support play Michael Ireland opened the scoring in the corner after a good pass out from Ben Tidey 5-0 Windsor. After the re-start James Thorogood robbed the ball from a bad Chinnor pass and set Jamie off at Speed down the line to make it 10-0 Windsor. Sammy then showed the importance of support play, after linking up twice with Michael and Ben, Sam was at the end of the loop again to take the pass and score 15-0 Windsor. After three games in quick succession tiredness started to tell and Chinnor came back at the re-start to score 15-5, at half time three subs came on to give the sprinters a rest. Coach reminded them it may come down to tries scored at the end, then normal service resumed, James Thorogood continued to show his improvement when he powered up the middle to score 20-5 Windsor. After the re-start Windsor got the ball back from a Knock-on, which Michael took quickly to set Ben Tidey off for another try 25-5. Ben Tidey seemed to be everywhere, he collected a dropped ball in the centre to break the Chinnor line and set Jamie Hayes-Brown off to sprint the length of the pitch for 30-5 Windsor.
Match 5 Windsor 15 v Worcester G 10
Tries: Michael Ireland, Toby Clarke 2.
Nobody could work out why they had been called the G team but Worcester showed they had a very strong U8’s section with another strong team for Windsor to beat. Worcester started well at pace and scored in the corner very quickly 5-0 Worcester G. At the re-start Windsor went out of play to hand the ball over to Worcester, it was then 10-0 Worcester from a score in the corner. The Windsor coach loudly reminded the team of their defensive responsibility, Toby took the ball from the re-start to sprint in for 10-5 Worcester.
Windsor got the ball handed back after good tagging, Sam and Jamie played the ball out to Toby who ran the length of the pitch avoiding four tackles, they got Toby with the fifth, but Michael Ireland had supported Toby all the way, Michael got the pass to run on and score 10-10. Windsor got the ball back from a knock-on 5m off their own line, Jake passed out to Jamie who gave Toby a long pass, which set Toby off on his longest run of the day, he sprinted the length of the pitch to make it 15-10 Windsor, and sent the Windsor supporters wild with excitement. Worcester looked to have got back level but the final pass was forward and the referee blew the final whistle.
So Windsor topped the table, we were going to play Staines in the final, after lunch we moved up to the Wasps Stadium for some Beer and Ice Creams. Coach handed out Yorkie Bars to get the energy levels back up.
Final at Wasps Stadium Windsor 25 Staines 15
Tries: Michael Ireland, Toby Clarke 2, Jamie Hayes-Brown, Sammy Holden.
It was not until we stepped out on the pitch and saw all the families looking on that we realised what it all was going to mean, after a warm up and a focus of minds from coach we were underway.
Staines had proved to be very quick in the pool game draw of 15-15 and it continued on in the final, Toby scored very quickly for 5-0 Windsor, Staines came straight back for 5-5, Windsor’s passing was very strong moving the ball wide for Toby to score again. 10-5 Windsor. Staines had a quick winger that had troubled us all day and he did it again to make it 10-10, Windsor lost the ball at the re-start with a knock-on, Staines rushed on to score in the corner 15-10 Staines. Michael Ireland made it level before half-time, Michael always gives the team a special try during a tournament, with some twists and turns he avoided the tackles to score in the corner 15-15 half-time.
Two changes at half-time saw Jamie appear for the second half, keeping his speed for the second half he got the try we hoped for with a jinking run down the left avoiding three tackles to make it 20-15 Windsor. Staines looked to go flat after that and after a good tagging session Toby collected a dropped ball to race for the line and put the ball down, the referee said play on as it was two steps after he had been tagged, Sammy Holden reacted quickest to get the ball and score 25-15 to Windsor. Sammy made way for Jake, and Windsor came under pressure for the last quarter of the game as Staines tried to get back in, but a strong defence lead by Jake kept them out till the final whistle.
Family Windsor and team went wild at the end, the lads jumping around with joy in front of a very appreciative Wasps crowd, after having pictures taken on the pitch we took our seats in the stands, in which some very kind comments were given about the lads high standard of play.
Well done lads from all the coaching staff and I know very proud Mum’s and Dad’s.