On an early and misty morning at the festival hosted by Ruislip RFC, the damp hung stubbornly in the air like a prop forward reluctant to leave the ruck. Fifteen eager youngsters from Finchley RFC U10s arrived ready for a morning of eight-a-side rugby, facing a busy schedule against Hackney RFC, Grasshoppers RFC, Hammersmith and Fulham RFC, Harrow RFC, Twickenham RFC, and the hosts themselves.

As it turned out, the early alarm clocks were clearly still echoing in a few heads.

The opening exchanges against Hackney and then Grasshoppers were a case study in “things Finchley normally do… but didn’t.” Passes that usually stick found the turf, defensive lines that normally snap into place arrived a step late, and before the team quite knew what had happened, they were two games down. To be fair, the opposition did plenty right—but the overriding feeling was that Finchley hadn’t quite located the ignition key yet.

Fortunately, the coaches gathered the squad for a calm reset. A few encouraging words, a reminder of the basics, and—most importantly—the return of a few smiles began to change the mood.

Games three and four, against Hammersmith & Fulham and then Harrow, saw a noticeably sharper Finchley outfit. The attacking rhythm wasn’t fully humming yet, but the defensive rucking stepped up a gear. Suddenly Finchley were clearing breakdowns with real intent, making life much harder for their opponents. Two tough, hard-earned draws followed, each played with increasing intensity and growing belief.

Then came the masterstroke.
Adopting a bold “bomb squad” strategy—seven substitutes unleashed at once—Finchley injected a burst of fresh legs that would have made a Test match bench proud. The change worked immediately. Against a strong Twickenham side, Finchley began hard and fast, scoring early and taking the game away from their opponents, before starving the opposition of easy ball, tightening up defensively and running with far more confidence in attack.
It was an assured and disciplined performance, and the first win of the morning arrived in well-earned fashion.
Suddenly all those long and repetitious Sunday mornings had led up to this.

By the final match against the hosts from Ruislip, the transformation was complete. Defensive rucking was sharp, handling crisp, and the smiles stretched from ear to ear as the players rediscovered just how well they can play when everything clicks.

The result was a confident, controlled performance that saw Finchley run out comfortable winners to round off the festival.
From a slightly wobbly opening to a grandstand finish, the U10s showed impressive resilience and growth across the morning.
Every player contributed, every player learned, and every player left with plenty of credit—and just enough to work on to make the next festival even better.

The final showing a team, running through tackles, clearing out the rucks and showing true discipline to the game.
That effort showed at the end of the day, as the team finally sat down to enjoy a birthday spread for two of the players and a parent thrown in, that rounded off the morning.

Muddy, tired and smiling, they had clearly left everything out on the pitch—a team showing signs of fatigue but lifted by the dominant performance that finished the day.

Not bad for a morning that began in the mist.

Rob Alexander