UNDER 7S TRIUMPH AT THE ROMFORD FESTIVAL

Burnham under 7s rugby team took part in the Romford festival of Rugby today. We entered a team of eight players front row Nathan Flynn, George Hutcheon, Patrick Smyth, Back row Joseph Banks, Keiran Harris, George Cooke, Thomas Courts .

The teams entering the tournament were put into two leagues with the top teams of each league playing each other.

We were set to play four games in the group stage the first of which was against Bancroft. Our players came out guns all firing with some fantastic tagging by Patrick Smyth we managed to go two try’s up by the first half. The second half was much more equally matched with each team making the most of the ball. Burnham held on to win the game 10:9.

The second game was against Ongar and both teams managed to turnover the ball but as neither team managed to draw ahead the score was equal. As normal time ticked away Ongar had the last play of the game and managed to score giving them a 10:9 victory.

Our third game was against Wanstead and again we came out of the blocks managing to take a number of tags and turning the ball over four times to make a decisive 10:6 win.

Our fourth and final group game had us playing the home team Romford. This proved to be a tough game as both teams needed a win to finish second to make it through to the rose bowl final. The match started with both Kieran and Patrick doing some fantastic tagging but Romford were just as good in defence, with some great support play. The final breakthrough came with great teamwork from the whole team who were now getting tired after four games but all players wanting to play to get the team through. We managed to pull two try’s in front, before Romford managed to pull one back. Final Score 7:6 to Burnham.

We made it through to the Rose Bowl final against Romford 2 who having seen our last performance knew we would be a strong opposition. We started the game and our players wanted to make a statement and pushed forward getting tags and a turnover from the first ball with Patrick Smyth scoring showing that he could not only grab tags but score try’s as well, which was what earned him Burnham Player of the tournament. This was just the first of many turnover balls for Burnham and by half time the score was five: two to Burnham. In the second half Romford took more control of the game holding Burnham back and matching them try for try with each team scoring a further three times with the final Score 8:5 to Burnham and winning them the Rose Bowl.

Man of the match was Patrick Smyth for his outstanding tagging thought the whole day.

Match report by Andrew Courts.

Fantastic result and day of rugby well done from Dave and Specks xxxxxxxxxx