Haslemere U9s A & B Team at Guildfordians Tournament

A Team Report:
Match 1 vs. Old Alleyanians

Haslemere started the match off purposefully. A hard tackle by James Christie on the first play set the tone. Haslemere defended well and had good periods of possession in the first half but Old Alleyanians were the first to score. They extended their lead to 2:0 by half time, somewhat against the tide of play. Haslemere got stronger in the second half and had possession for the majority of the match but could not convert possession into tries. On the other hand, Old Alleyanians continued to be an attacking threat, and Jamie Steele produced at least two try-saving tackles where one of Old Alleyanians fastest players had broken through the rest of the field. Overall, Haslemere were a little unlucky in this first match and were not helped by having to play uphill both halves.

Final score: 0:2

Match 2 vs. Barnes

Haslemere could not quite emulate the performance of the previous match. Against a strong Barnes side, play in the first half was a little disjointed and they were down 0-2 at half time. Barnes continued to play well in the second half, with some strong individual performances by fast players, and they added three more tries. A tough game against good opposition but to their credit, the boys never gave up and prevented a more lopsided score with some good tackling across the team.

Final score: 0:5

Match 3 vs. Battersea Ironsides

Against another strong London side, Haslemere pulled off a much improved performance in the first half. After Battersea went up 1:0, Haslemere’s stronger attacking impetus appeared to be rewarded when James Christie went across the try line at the stroke of half time, the try however was not given. Haslemere continued to play well in the second half and had good possession. However, no tries were forthcoming, with one effort being denied 1 meter before the try line due to the 7 tackles rule. Battersea, on the other hand, took their chances and added three more tries in the second half. A tough score for Haslemere in the end that did not quite reflect the balance of the match.

Final Score: 0:4

Match 4 vs. Cranleigh

In its final match, things finally came together for Haslemere. More assured scrum half play, better passing and some good running led to a quick try by James Christie. With better confidence across the team, Jake Power soon added a second try, and another try by Dylan Beesley made it 3:0 at half time. Haslemere had to play uphill in the second half and Cranleigh came back strongly. They cut the deficit to 1:3 soon after half-time, fairly quickly followed by a second try. When Cranleigh added a third with three minutes to go, it came to a nail-biting finish. However, Haslemere held on and the boys were probably happy with the draw in the end.

Final score: 3:3

B Team Report

Haslemere 2 Sevenoaks 3

The first game of the tournament was versus Sevenoaks, a strong team with some very quick and big boys. Sevenoaks took the first ball of the game, but against a very strong defence and some great tackling from the offset notably from Will Connolly, Kai Philips Mateo and Ben Bysouth, we took control of the ball with no score from Sevenoaks. We then went on to score the first try of the game by Kai Phillips Mateo. A very close run game overall with another try later in the game from Jacob Scotson and great effort from all the boys, we unfortunately lost 3-2.

Haslemere 2 Old Alleyanians 3

Fired up from the defeat of the first game the boys came back stronger and with some fantastic scrum half play from Freddie Pendlebury and support from Ed Jackson and Kai Phillips Mateo gave Ben Bysouth the chance to score 2 tries running the length of the pitch through the remainder of the opposition. Haslemere were unlucky to lose in this game due to an interception of a loopy pass towards the end of the game, but showed true team spirit and all came off smiling after a great game of rugby.

Haslemere 2 Battersea 4

A strong London team was next and once again we managed to tackle extremely well but just missed a couple of fast runners who we couldn’t hold on to. Great tries scored by Kai and Will Connolly, supported by Ben Cruttwell and Miles Huffam. Our tackling lacked a little in this game with the strength of the players we were against, Ben Anderton, in his first tournament, stood out in this game taking down some of their biggest players by ‘going for the legs’.

Haslemere 3 Cranleigh 2

Our final game was victorious for the Haslemere Bs. Some great running and passing from Cameron Sly allowed Kai to get the first try of the game. Cranleigh came back with 2 more, but Haslemere battled hard to get 1 back before half time from Jacob Scotson. Defensive play from Ben Bysouth, Ben Cruttwell, Freddie Pendlebury, Miles and Kai stopped them scoring again and after a half time talk where coach Guy predicted Olly O’ Regan would score the winning try, Haslemere worked hard and got Olly over the line. A great win for Haslemere after a hard fought day.