Crawley Festival CRFC U11s

Full Match Report written by Adrian Jackson:

Crawley Rugby Festival – 9.10.16

Pool C

Eastbourne
Midhurst
Hove
Horsham
Crowborough
Pulborough

Match Report:

A year round and it’s Crawley Festival to compete in again. We arrived at 9:00am to warm up and talk tactics for a planned kick off and 10:45am against Pulborough.

Crowborough vs Pulborough

It was a tough match with neither team giving much away. Four minutes into the game Connor unfortunately received a shoulder injury, he was replaced by Toby. First half score was 0-0. Second half Dante tackled well and received the ball to score our 1st try. Fraser raced through with his character style of head down to score our 2nd try. On the half way line there was a lot of action in gaining possession of the ball. Dante was involved in the heart of this, he unfortunately received a knock to the back of his head as he fell. It was felt best he didn’t play any further games as a precaution. Final time gave us our first win of the day 2-0.

Crowborough vs Midhurst

Another tough game. Oscar T had a great early run from receiving a good pass, just short of a try. Midhurst responded with some good play. This lead to the only try in the first half from Midhurst. Second half saw good hands and passing from JoJo and Josh which enabled Toby to equal the score with a try. This proved to be a ‘scrappy’ and and times ‘dirty’ game. We didn’t allow Midhurst any playing space which showed in their frustration. Final Score 1-1.

Crowborough vs Eastbourne

We needed a cleaner more confident game and this proved to be it. Whistle and kick off landed into Dylans hands, a solely run on the wing to score our first try. Fraser quickly scored our second try. Further excellent passing saw Eli score a clever try, our confidence was clear. Josh finished well with a fourth try at half time. Second half saw Fraser score followed by Archie, the whole team all playing well. Eastbourne finally worked into our try area and perseverance scored their first try. Fraser scored his hat trick to finish the match 7-1.

Crowborough vs Hove

Well done Crows, playing as a team and confidence rolling. Oscar L scoring our first try, Dylan our second, Fraser our 3rd and Will finishing the first half with our 4th try. Second half was slightly harder with Hove’s defence improving. Dylan scored a late try finishing the game 5-0 BOOM!!!

Crowborough vs Horsham

With the order of play the team had to wait 1 1/2 hours for the last game of day, the coaches did well in keeping the the team alert ready for the whistle. Eli showed excellent footwork to help Dylan score the first try with the support of Marcus and Will. Josh followed with the second try. Half time 2-0. Second half we continued some good play from Sam, Oscar T and Toby. Archie had a great second half scoring not one but two tries. Victorious again finishing 4-0.

A total of 19 tries scored by the Crows with only two tries conceded. Four wins and one draw, well done players and coaches. A fantastic day of rugby and enjoyable to watch for the coaches and parents.

In short, it was a big success. The squad were unbeaten and played some great running rugby. The results were as follows:

Pulborough: Won 2-0
Midhurst: Drew 1-1
Eastbourne Won 7-1
Hove: Won 5-0
Horsham: Won 4-0

To have scored 19 tries with only 2 against was an impressive effort. We are playing the level of rugby now where there are no easy games, and the squad had to dig deep for what was a long day of rugby.

We did think we might take a vote for the Player of the Festival. But on reflection, we think this would be unfair given that every squad member played so well, contributed hugely to the team's overall performance and worked tirelessly in every game. We feel lucky to be coaching such a talented group of young lads - well done all.

Unfortunately, Dante and Connor picked up injuries to the head and shoulder respectively and we wish them both well for a speedy recovery.