Tigers (Nigel Wellings)

Sunburnt on Saturday, soaked on Sunday!

I hope that the boys have now recovered from what was great two days of rugby against a range of very good sides, with no easy games.

The overall record – won 3 lost 7 – was harsh with three games lost by a single try (1 scored on the final play: and in one of those matches we failed to score on the final play) and 3 losses against the top three sides.

The Saturday started with 2 tough games, first against the Lions and then against with the eventual winners of the tournament, Olney Crusaders. The team had two new faces, and coming straight into the tournament, effectively playing together for the first time, made hitting the ground running quite difficult. Although the effort could not be faulted, the team's solidity was just not there and we were slow at the break down. However, the team picked itself up and started to put some patterns of play together to win 2 of the remaining 3 games of the day, and come away with a very creditable morning's work. Aden and Will were tireless in producing some strong running, and with Amelia moved to first receiver and creating some space, we started to play some good rugby. Moving Amelia into first receiver during the tournament, requiring our runners to run off the first receiver rather than scrum half, was a big shift to try, and the boys handled it very well.

Sunday was, in a word, wet. The team had three games in an hour, starting with an excellent winning performance against OAs (which, as far as Martin is concerned means it was a successful tour). The second and third games were single try defeats, but we played well in both games, particularly against Old Elthamians where our defence was superb. This team moved the ball well, and tested our defence but we held our shape, kept making the tackles, and held firm until the very last play of the game. Amelia made some excellent breaks, scoring our try, and 2-1 in our favour would not have been an unfair result.

A longish break to our fourth game then led to the only disappointing performance of the weekend, with tiredness, the cold and injuries to Matt and Amelia disrupting the pattern at play, leading to a loss. Which only made our final performance all the more impressive. This was against Olney Hurricanes, who went on to come second in the tournament. Every try mattered here, as at that stage it looked like second place would be between the Lions and this Olney team and would be decided on points difference. With this focus, the Tigers really stepped up. Although we lost 4-0, every try had to be scored and Olney really did have to play well to get across our line. As the last game of a 2 day tournament, after the morning the team had and playing the tournament with only a nine man squad, this was a really strong performance. At times in the game we had Olney rattled: forcing knock-ons, and penalties. Again, good team shape, with Rhian (an extra sub for the day), Ben B and Ben S holding their position to deny space on the wing; Matt digging the ball out, and all four of Will, Louis, Adem and Matt contributing (Amelia unfortunately injured for this one). A great shame that we couldn't quite score the consolation try that we deserved with the last play: but to be at the right end of the pitch on the last play of a long wet day, showed great character.

So what did we learn? Hopefully, that we are a good team when we hold our shape, each play our roles and work together.

Many thanks and well done to Will, Adem, Louis, Alex, Matt, Ben S and Ben B; and to Amelia and Rhian from the Saracens who contributed massively. No player of the tournament, but I do have to mention the champagne moment: Alex taking the pass as first receiver, and, seeing the defence up very quickly, throwing the most outrageous dummy, adding a body swerve and blasting 15 yards up the pitch, literally causing an "oooh" from the crowd!! Great stuff.

Lions (Scott Stevens)

Well firstly I'd just like to say a massive thank you to the parents for bringing their children. Without a doubt, a great time was had by all. From dodgey 70s 'get up' (nigel, Oliver and Paul win top awards) to my son's new found addiction to 2p coins, we all had a great deal of fun.

On the rugby side, I have now wrestled with my emotions... we played some beautiful rugby and at times looked fantastic. In the end a combination of fatigue, the draw and the weather all played their part in ensuring we didn't do as well as I'd hoped or as well as our skills should have dictated. We won the biggest trophy I have ever seen and 3rd is a very respectable place but we should have secured the 'runners up' position or gone one better - but hey ho, this is tournament rugby and you have to take all your chances.

We started against the Tigers, which was always going to be tricky as the boys had mixed emotions. We could have scored more tries but we didn't run as hard etc, by design, as we couldn't afford any injuries. Our second match against Olney was a classic. We started slowly but the second half we pressed them really hard and were unfortunate to not convert our pressure into points. I truly believe, had we played them later in the afternoon, we would have beaten them. It ended 0 - 0 but we had the lions share of possession. Our following 3 games were all excellent victories including beating OAs 5 - 0. There was some great distribution from Martin and really strong running from Luca and Oliver. It was great to see a pop pass from Luca to Marcus on the OA's try line (very mature in ensuring we scored a try and some great suppport play from Marcus to be in the right place at the right time). Great teamwork. This game also saw a lovely interception try from Samuel as well as a great 'tracking back tackle'. We really started to gel as a team and we left a beautiful sunny Saturday in eager anticipation of Sunday's games.

The weather was, what can only be described as 'miserable'! We started OK but we knew we needed tries and tried to do too much individually in the first game. This was entirely my fault, having presumed Warlington were not going to be strong having finished bottom on the first day, I encouraged to boys to just score if they saw the opportunity to run through players. I don't believe the referee helped our efforts, continually missing extra players in rucks and mauls, as well as holding on, on the ground. Obviously my efforts to 'help' the referee were extremely well recieved and I managed to 'win' a penalty against us. Note to self... just walk away. We played in our following two games, winning a comprehensive victory against Sidcup and played some expansive rugby, in spite of the conditions, which were getting worse. The boys were all set for a grudge match against Olney's other team and the game was probably the highlight of the tournament. No quarter was given and the boys played with real grit and determination. James Ledgend was as his name suggests - a ledgend. He came onto the field and played a blinder. Never moaned or whinged. With a dislocated knee cap he threw himself into tackles, in spite of us asking him to stay out of trouble. A real star. We moved the ball really well in horrendous conditions and our line speed, led by Owen, was fantastic. The Olney coaches were extremely complimentary (as well as being a lovely bunch) of our ability and skills and I believe a 0 - 0 draw was a fair result. We will increasingly need to incorporate short balls and miss moves with dummy runners if we are to penetrate the defense of excellent teams like Olney - something we will be working on at the beginning of next season, along with the full back running into the line ad tactical kicking. It was a great game. No doubt about it.

What followed can only be described as a great disappointment. We had to take an hour off, which the boys spent huddled in a steamy tent in wet clothing. It was then a judgement call to take them out early to 'warm up' which would have resulted in them getting really cold, or run straight out onto the field to play Leicester (who had just finished playing and were warmed up). Either call would have been wrong in hindsight, so the result was inevitable - freezing cold players. Some boys tried to break through it and demonstrated they really wanted it (3 by my count), whilst the cold got the better of the others and we failed to recapture the committment and passion we showed in earlier games. As a result we drew a game we would have ordinarily won by a few tries. Leicester were a good team but we all knew we were much better but failed to deliver over the course of 12 minutes of rugby.

All in all an extremely respectable 3rd, but we should have finsished second at the very least. We knew it and more importantly the boys knew it... albeit some were too cold to

A massive thank you to folks standing out in appauling conditions, supporting the boys. Adi's tent was a genuine 'life saver' and we'll learn from this by getting our own for next season. We need a bigger squad than just 8 players for a team of 8, as other teams had fresh legs to bring on and could manage the 'knocks' better too. That said all our boys were extremely brave and by comparison to all the other teams, we took our bruises and knocks like hardened warriors. We got hurt but we didn't cry. We need to bring towels and a dry undergarment to tournaments where we know the weather will be mixed, to ensure we can get some respite from wet clothing.

Life is a learning experience and I feel we all learnt a great deal about each other and about the boys as players - how we reacted when the pressure was on or the conditions were less favourable. Indeed, our referee in the last game was extremely complimentary about the style of rugby we played throughout and how he felt we'd learnt over the course of the 10 games. It was a fantastic experience, both the ups and the downs, and was great to get away and get to know each other outside the mad rush of an hour's training mid week or 2 hours on a Sunday. Thank you for committing your time and money. I know all the boys really appreciated it, as did we as coaches.

We also learnt that Martin is really Brad Pitt, Guy needs a 'power nap' every now and again or for Sophie to wear that dress again, Jason likes a pint or two and Oliver is more than happy to keep him company; Nigel would love to live in the 70s, as would Paul (but only because he'd have had long hair) and Gary doesn't like dressing up! Pete and Laura are entering a Blackpool dancing competition and will win and Turan and Sev will definitely be keeping a very close eye on their beautiful daughter on future rugby tours - she was getting a lot of attention from some of the other teams. Pinball will always find a way to get in (especially if there might be a deal to be had) and I need to work on my rapport with blind referees. We also learned that Pontins really isn't that bad and that it's the people you are with rather than the place you are in, that really matters... but you all knew that anyway.