We started off playing against Wimbledon Warriors and right from the stat it was a highly intense game. Vandals tackled strong and played some decent rugby. There were opportunities to win the game if we had made a couple more passes, but in the end we had a 1-1 draw.

Game 2 was against Teddington, and this was a mismatch. They had only 7 players so a big thank you to Duncan and Edward who both played a half for them so they had a full team. It was one sided and the referee cut the time down to 4 mins each way and we still managed to win 4-0, with better passing and also sound defence.

Game 3 was against a team who travelled from Chichester. This is where the tournament really started hotting up. The intensity was still really impressive from all our players. Tackling was immense from everyone, they had a few big lads who did get a bit of yardage in the first half, but as the game went on, their big lads were getting quite fed up with getting knocked backwards in the tackle. At half time it was 1-1, but the second half we really started to play and as their big lads tired, they had no ‘plan B’ and we ended up being comfortable winners 5-1 I think was the final score.

The last group game was against Chobham, a team we have played quite a few times. Again, the first half was quite tight, they scored first, but it would be their only score. It took us some time to settle into our best attacking form, but we scored 4 unanswered tries to finish the round robin. The last try was a discussion point as Dave and I thought it was a good score, one of their parents thought we had dropped the ball. In the end the Referee did award the try and good that he did as we qualified for the final by one score….. phew.

The team we had to play in the final was from Sevenoaks, we had played them in the same tournament last year and had an extremely tight game winning 1-0, so we knew we were in for a battle.

The first 3 minutes they had all the ball, you could tell that they were a very well drilled side. Their rucking especially was the best I have seen in an U10 side. We struggled to get into the first half in terms of ball possession, but the one thing that kept us in the game was our tackling. It really was top notch. Many times we made crunching tackles drawing appreciating gasps from all the people watching. There were some great last minute tackles too, with all the team getting stuck in. Sevenoaks did cross our line once, but the determination from Vandals to not let them score again was tremendous. Half time score was 1-0 to Sevenoaks.
The second half was a complete change. We had much more of the ball, and retained possession very well. We camped on their try line for quite a few mins and eventually through drive and persistence we powered over for a score, 1-1.

They seemed to have less and less of the ball as our defence was very solid, our thumping tackles kept on coming and when we did have the ball we used it well.

With the game tied at 1-1, we entered the final minute of the game. We retained possession at a ruck just inside our half, passed the ball through three or four of our players, with perfect timing (drawing the defender and passing), Marco drew the last defender with a great pass to Joel, and he was off and running into space. About 8 yards from their line a tackler grabbed Joel’s shirt, but he could not hang on, Joel broke free to score the winning try.. Very exciting finish and my ears are still recovering from Dave screaming his encouragement to Joel.

A tremendous victory, against some very tough opponents.
A lot of respect goes to Sevenoaks, but once we got our passing game going, we ran out deserved winners
Every single player on our team were awesome. Our defence was incredible and fierce, and once we got the ball and passed into space, then we were the best team there (in my opinion ;-) )

Jack Gonzalez collected the trophy on behalf of the team and the Player of the week went to Joel Williams, who tackled like all the team, but his try scoring, using his pace out on the wings was fantastic. Joel get the trophy for the first week. Well done young man…

Allan