U8's Sunday 27th April

« St. Neots Festival / Letchworth Fixture Reports & Team News 4th May | Main | U11s at St Neots Festival - 27 Apr 08 »

Eric finally lost his voice......

Sunday 4th

Not sure of the arrangements for Sunday but suggest a start time of 10.15. If I find out more I will let you know.

Match reports from last Sunday below:


Tigers report thanks to Caroline
v Cambridge (10 a-side)
Final Score: C'bridge 10 - Tigers 5

Tigers Scorers: Joseph 4, Pippa 1

Tigers were a bit slow to wake up to playing a game rather than training and gave C. an easy first score. T restarted but lose possession and C take advantage with a runaway try. T restart again and this time move the play forward with some good running from Joseph - just losing the ball in front of the try line. T then defend better, making some crucial tags but C work their way to the other end and score again. At this point 0-3 is not looking too good! T restart with Pippa and Ben L pushing play up. Good support from Ben S and Elliott but they are tagged out just before the try line. C try to take advantage but good defending by T foreces them into touch. T again get up to the try line but just can't seem to score! Again, T take possession from C and this time Joseph uses his movement well and is rewarded. At last! C then restart and get a runaway try just on the half time whistle. C4 - T1. T start the second half and good supporting play sees Pippa get on the score sheet. C answer immediately - as the rain intensifies.......oh good. T restart and again good support lets Joseph get through for another try. C come straight back - too fast for our defence! T keep on working though and great team play from Ben S, Ben L and Joseph sees Joseph get his hattrick. T work hard at getting their hands on those C tags but C again get through to score. T restart and despite some good movement between Ben S and Elliott they just go into touch. C take advantage of their unexpected possession and sprint for the line (he was fast!). Pippa and Joseph then link up for some great play with Iago supporting but lose possession just before the C line. C then push us back on our heels and win the try. Not to be outdone, Joseph has one final great run to up his tally. C restart and despite T defending better they get through to finalise the score at 10 - 5.

Tigers played well once they woke up! At the start they did not keep to their defensive line (bees and honeypot come to mind) and paid the price. the score would have been very different if they could move forward with the ball instead of sideways! They seem to think it is a crime to be tagged rather than seeing it as a way of gaining ground.

We gave up after one game as it was sooooo wet.

Lions thanks to Jill

Under 8's at St Neots festival - unbeaten but just missed out on the final.

Hitchin 3 Newmarket 3
Our team took a little while to warm up and went down a try very quickly. However, we soon got back into things and passed the ball well. Newmarket were a good team and managed to grab another try just before half time. An inspirational team talk at half time seemed to do the trick as the boys hit their form and put Harry D through to score. Elliot bagged an excellent equaliser but Newmarket broke through again, despite the best efforts of Sam and Elliot's tagging. The third try was scored by Niall who's speed was awesome on the wing. A draw was a good result to the team that just pipped us to the final (Newmarket scored an extra bonus point from a later game but were beaten in the final).

Hitchin 4 Biggleswade 1
This was a really good team display. We started strongly with another blast down the wing from Niall for try number one. This was quickly followed with a team try coming from a strong run from Sam who passed well to Alfie who managed to find Jack who in turn found Elliot's safe hands to finish off with a try. Alfie then got on the score sheet after Jordan made plenty of ground with a determined run through the Biggleswade defence. A deserved mention to Elliot at this point who's tagging in this game was superb More great team play meant that Harry L was able to get on the end of a pass from Sam to score. A comfortable win for game 2.

Hitchin 4 Huntingdon 3
The boys were caught napping as they failed to hear the referee's call and Huntingdon literally walked through us to get a very easy first try. However, Elliot as reliable as ever side stepped his way through for an equaliser. Elliot had a brilliant game as he made a huge distance down the pitch and found Jack in support who managed to score comfortably. Tries went with play with Alfie "twinkle toes" also showing his agility with a great solo effort. It was Alfie who scored the winner too with another individual break through.

Hitchin 7 St Neots 6
I am really sorry but was watching my other son play and although I was keeping an eye on the pitch for this game to start, I was looking at the wrong pitch and didn't get over until the last few minutes. I will say that this was a very exciting game with great rugby from both teams, good defensive work from Alex and Rhian, great skills from Elliot and Alfie, with strong running from the Harry's and Sam. Our try scorers were - Sam 1, Elliot 1, Niall 1, Alfie 2, Harry L 2.

Unfortunately, despite being unbeaten, Newmarket went through as winners as they had an extra bonus point win. Although the team were disappointed, it was a wonderful end of season display from our very talented squad. A superb end to a successful season.

Coach's Comments

Everywhere we go,
People want to know,
Who we are,
So we tell them,
We are the Hedgehogs,
The Undefeated Hedgehogs......

So close and yet so far...

Last year we drew two and won two to reach the final at the St. Neots festival; this year one draw and three wins left us one, yes one, try short of the final...you were brilliant, unlucky, but BRILLIANT!

After a slow start to be 2-0 down to Newmarket at half-time in the first match, you never looked back.

You grabbed the draw against the eventual runners-up - imagine if we hadn't given them that start!!

Then you went on to beat Biggleswade, Huntingdon and regular (3rd time this season), tough opponents St. Neots.

Great running; clinical finishing; excellent support play; strong defence; loud (and I don't mean me!!) communication; unselfish hard work; unswerving 'team' spirit - you gave everything!!!

Long will I remember your two sets of 7 tags that prevented St. Neots scoring at the end of the match, the second set from only 5 metres from our try line!!

What an excellent end to the season; to deliver your strongest consistent performance over 4 matches was a credit to each and every one of you; both the experienced Lions players and those who stepped up from the Tigers in the final festival of the season.

I really am so proud!!

A mention for the Tigers too; you finished the season with a strong performance against a very strong Cambridge squad and have delivered everything Charles and I have asked of you this season - Tigers...You've earned your stripes - excellent; well done!!

This week's Player of the Week was almost impossible because the whole of the squad at St. Neots contributed immensely, but there was one player who, just before the final game, I asked to give me his performance of the festival and he was excellent both in strong driving runs and tireless in grabbing tags, so this week's player of the week is Angel Eyes. Very Well done!!

Well folks, as they say, that's about it.

Have a great Summer and see you in September.

Eric (No voice left!!)