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Worthing A Festival
06 May 2007
For their first match, Sevenoaks were drawn against Brighton, the eventual winners of the cup competition. Sevenoaks again started slowly and with Brighton’s impressive all round play, they were 0-2 down by half time despite several tremendous try saving tackles by Tom Cantlay and Thomas Hiller in particular. In the second half however, Brighton continued to drive through the tackles and with Sevenoaks only able to generate one genuine try scoring opportunity when Marcus Lyne scythed through the Brighton defence from a restart, to be held up just short of the line, another two scores resulted in a 0-4 full-time score. A disappointing but not wholly unexpected result given the quality of the Brighton squad.
The second match was against Upminster, the team against whom Sevenoaks had drawn the previous week at the finals of the Harlequins Curtain Raiser competition. Once again, Upminster sought to use their big forwards but Sevenoaks matched them from the start, with everyone totally committed and tackle after tackle being made. Upminster were made to fight for every inch of ground and whilst several times they came close to scoring, Sevenoaks simply refused to yield, with Alfred Gard in particular putting in a Herculean performance. As full-time approached, however, further intense pressure by Upminster finally told and they were able to squeeze over to score in the teeth of continued committed defensive work. Thus Sevenoaks went down 0-1 but could take immense satisfaction from the total commitment they had shown and that Upminster had been made to work so very hard for the narrowest of wins.
The third and final pool match was against Bexley. On the back of their defensive performance against Upminster, Sevenoaks were determined from the start to also display their offensive skills. Early on, following good work by Tom Cantlay and Sam Thompson, Josh Kidd had just been held up whilst soon after, Tom Cantlay had been unable to cleanly ground the ball following a line-out. The first Sevenoaks score wasn’t long in coming, though. With Sevenoaks defence up very quickly and pressuring hard, Bexley dropped the ball which Thomas Tilling quickly gathered and sprinted free to score. The second score came from a line-out with the ball going down the line to Josh Kidd who made good ground before slipping the ball to Marcus Lyne to run free and score. The third try, scored by the hard working Kieran Thomas, again resulted from good, quick passing by the backs whilst Tom Cantlay was the deserved recipient of more quick passing down the line, scoring Sevenoaks’ fourth. Alex McCann showed his sharp pace to get the fifth, following quick action by Harry Knox at a Bexley ruck, whilst Marcus Lyne got the sixth and final score when, as scrum half, he broke away down the blind-side following a scrum and went over untouched.
Sevenoaks were through to the Shield competition, where they came up against Romford & Gidea Park in the semi-finals. Sevenoaks were the first to score. Following strong defence on their own line, the ball came out to the excellent Tom Cantlay, whose speed and strength took him through some despairing tackles. Romford were able to equalise on half time though following a couple of missed tackles. The lead was re-established at the restart, with good combination play between Harry Knox and Tom Cantlay resulting in Tom Cantlay getting his second. Sevenoaks were clearly mentally still celebrating as it was Romford’s turn to equalise, again straight from the restart as they ran past a static Sevenoaks defence. Some big tackles by Tom Oldroyd and Will Yates kept the score at 2-2 before a turnover ball by Sevenoaks at a ruck resulted in Marcus Lyne sprinting over to score. Sevenoaks were unable to retain the lead until the end, however, as some indecision and pressure by Romford resulted in a fumbled ball that Romford quickly gathered and took over the line. With the match finishing and the scores level at 3-3, the fixture was unfortunately decided by a toss of a coin. This time, Sevenoaks called correctly and it was Romford who unluckily exited the event.
The final was against Wootten Bassett. Sevenoaks had the upper hand for most of the game and spent long periods in Wootten Bassett’s half. Several times Sevenoaks were on or very close to the try line, and it was following a scrum close to the line that the ball was fed out, enabling Tom Cantlay to score. Sevenoaks had to be on their toes defensively in the second half, as Wootten Bassett sought to use one of their big but very mobile players more. The Sevenoaks defence continued to work very hard, not allowing the opposition much space or time and it was following further strong tackling by Sevenoaks that Thomas Tilling gathered the ball and sprinted from his own half for the line. He was caught close to Wootten Bassett’s line but his own strength and determination enabled him to keep going and despite the defence’s best efforts, get over and score. The final whistle went shortly after, with Sevenoaks being the winners of the Shield by 2-0. The trophy and medals were collected by the team on the balcony of Worthing’s clubhouse to cheers from the assembled other players and parents.
Thus the Under 9’s season closed on a high, and again has proved to be a season in which all the boys involved at Sevenoaks can look back on with pride and tremendous satisfaction at what has been achieved. Next Saturday, the club holds its annual dinner for the boys when it is hoped as many as possible will attend what is always a fun way of rounding off the year.
Squad
Tom Cantlay, Alfred Gard, Tom Hillier, Josh Kidd, Harry Knox (c), Marcus Lyne, Alex McCann, Thomas Oldroyd, Kieran Thomas, Sam Thompson, Thomas Tilling, William Yates