Under 10's smash it at the Saints Tournament!

Well on the weekend that the Doctor returns to our screens, so to does the under 10's ability to WIN tournaments. The under 10's only conceded 1 try in the entire Saints tournament and that was in the final!

On a drizzly cold Saturday morning the team arrive at Franklin Gardens struggling with the very early morning start. The coaches start with some gentle warm up exercises and progress to some more strenuous activities in preparation for their first match at 9.30am.

The first match against one of Olney's three teams was a walkover with the Blues winning 4-0. The pink shirts of the opposition definitely gave the boys some confidence to start the game. Master Tom Cawthorn certainly showed them that the Blues were a force to be reckoned with, scoring two trys with Rory Tyrell and Toby Peel finishing off the job with a try a piece. Olney did put up a good effort in their defence but the Blues dominated the game with superior passing and tackling.

Match two was against a very strong and aggressive Sudbury team but for all Sudbury's aggression the Blues spent the majority of the match in scrums at their try line. Kettering passed the ball particularly well down the line during the match and forced many errors from the Sudbury team, who did manage to turn the ball over on a number of occasions. The match ended with Kettering winning 3-0.

Match 3 was against the BBOBS and was another walkover for the boys winning 7-0. By this point Kettering were full of confidence and in the words of one the boys when referring to BBOBS "They stand no chance!". It has to be said that he was quite correct with six of our lads making the score sheet and Luca Stables scoring two! Well done lads!!

Match 4 against Ipswich was more of a challenge. Ipswich were a very strong side and their technique was good. It was evident that their coaches had spent a long time working on the teams tackling and passing skills. However, the Blues coaches have also spent a long time working on similar aspects and again the Under 10's kept a clean sheet winning 2-0. It must be noted that the match was a very aggressive one with a few injuries on both sides but all of us at Kettering hope that the injured Ipswich player that went off to hospital is well.

So at this point we all know that Kettering are through to the semi finals having not lost a match or even conceded a try. So then comes the wait to find out who we will face....

The Semi final is against Leyton Buzzard, the boys are still feeling invincible and we begin the match. The atmosphere is tense because Leyton Buzzard are showing why they too are in the semi final. Both sides want to get to the final as much as the other and both are tackling hard, trying their hardest to push down the pitch resulting in much of the action being at the centre of the pitch. At this point the parents of both teams were shouting so loudly you would have thought we were at the Millenium Stadium rather than the training grounds for an under 10's tournament. At half time the score is 0-0 and the coaches go on to talk to the boys...

The second half is just as tricky as the first... But then out of nowhere Benji Leesing springs up and drives hard into the opposition literally bowling for Buzzards! He then dives over the try line to plant one for the Blues. The match is won and we are through!!!!

THE FINAL.

So here we are back facing another Olney team. The boys were overjoyed to be facing the pink shirts again. However, this was definitely NOT Olney's development squad. Both teams were equally matched and hitting each other as hard as possible in both tackles and forced mistakes. The encouragement from both groups of parents is reaching fever pitch and at half time the score is 1-0 to Kettering. The Olney coaches pep talk at half time obviously did its job because Olney came out of nowhere within the first minute of the second half to score a try. The Blues react instantly to the threat of another potential count-back and Rory Tyrell goes flying past the Olney defence to plant the winner! A well earned 2-1 win to Kettering.

So after two tournaments of losing out on count-back of trys scored the Under 10's take up their well earned positions on the pitch at half time at the home of the Saints to collect their winners medals!!! At last!!!! Well done boys you played excellent rugby and thoroughly deserved your moment in the spotlight!!