U8 players for Finchley RFC U8’s Alex, Aidan, Dominic, Gareth, Oscar, Fintan, Hayden, Raul, Tom, William, Idrees, Louie, Max, Jonah, Sam, Irah and Toby

When I was handed the schedule of play I thought for a moment we had arrived to play a zoo with Tigers and Lions and Bears. The Gibbons will be playing the Rhinos and the Penguins are playing the Elephants and on pitch C we have the Snakes playing the Antelopes. That was my vain attempt at school boy humour and is just to cover up the fact that our boys faced a well disciplined and well trained bunch of Hertford teams. As one of their coaches rather gleefully pointed out to me when you can run out five teams, that must be 40 plus boys, there must be seven or eight amongst them who are let’s say pretty good players. Add to that with the fact that if a player does not stop, listen and pay attention to the coach they can always go from being a Lion back to being a Puma and what better incentive is that to get a boys attention.

Some of the start of play was interpreted in few games in a way that lead to much confusion and loss of concentration by our lads. I suppose people read rules in certain ways, but for the boys on the pitch it can seem frustrating to play in a way they normally do not play and as a result they may not play as well. The important thing is for the lads to learn to adapt to the game in front of them and then use the experience and hard knocks to grow as players and then hopefully to mature as well.

We knew Hertford’s five teams were selected in order of the players ability with the Lion’s and Tiger’s the strongest team and the Puma’s, Lynx and Cheetah’s being the B squads so Tom’s team were probably going to have a tougher time of it than Aidan’s team. This was shown to be the case as the games went on and the results came out.

Match 1 Finchley Tom (capt.) vs Hartford Lion’s U8 players: Tom, Alex, Dominic, Oscar, Fintan, Raul, Max and Toby

Finchley won the toss and play was started by Tom who although had a good run ended up on the side line in traffic then, as happened all too often during the day, ended up in touch and the ball was turned over to the Lion’s just on the line. However, the first try of the game was after a rare Lion’s mistake giving the ball to Finchley and after some good turning and running Dominic scored what was to be Finchley’s only try of the game. Again and again Finchley won the ball and ended up losing it to silly mistakes a bad pass here a dropped ball there were all punished with a lion’s try at the end of the play. The game was fast and furious with the ball turning over and plenty of tagging by both teams but Finchley could not get the ball over the Lion’s try line. Alex had a good long run only to be pushed into touch yet again as soon as he was near the try line. Over all Finchley played with as much heart as the Loin’s however, they could not manage to keep away from the side line and were punished again and again.
Try scored by Dominic
Game 6-1 to Hertford Lions

Match 2 Finchley Aidan (capt.) vs Hartford Lynx U8 players: Aidan, Gareth, Hayden, Sam, Jonah, Irah, Idrees, Louie and William

I did not watch the games with this team playing but I do get the feeling from what people were saying and the final score that the Puma’s were no Lion’s. This is not to distract from a fine Finchley performance only to put it in perspective. The game started with a strong run from Gareth and an early try always good for moral. Gareth then received a great pass and a long run to score the second of the game. Again from the free pass William took advantage of Finchley’s solid defensive play to score a third try. Over all there was some great passing play and all the Finchley players were aware of where the support was and able to move up the pitch into scoring positions. Aidan took advantage of a good pass and ploughed through to score his first of the day and a try from Hayden ended the half 5-1 to Finchley. The second half was much like the first with Finchley defiantly having the upper hand Sam scored right from the first play the defence of the Lynx’s left them wide open to Finchley’s attacks. A great pass from Gareth allowed Irah through to score and then from some straight running Irah passed to Sam who then Passed the ball too Hayden who finished the play with the last try of the game. I really wish I had been watching this game it looks on paper to be fantastic.
Tries scored by Aidan, Irah, Sam, William, 2 for Gareth and 2 for Hayden
Game 8-3 to Finchley

Match 3 Finchley Tom (capt.) vs Tabard U8 players: Tom, Alex, Dominic, Oscar, Fintan, Raul, Max and Toby

The second game for Tom’s team was to be against Tabard and although a strong team they were also no Lion’s. This was to be one of those stop start games with both the teams making the same small infringements that just slowed the play down and made the boys frustrated. However, after a good run Fintan put Finchley on the score sheet and after another try by Tom it was Dominic’s turn to show how easy it can be to stop a player running down the wing too near the line and then well unfortunately out to touch the player went, skilfully blocked by Dominic. Alex then had a good run from the start to score Finchley’s third try. Then finally some play truly to write home about a fine run by Max with a good pass near the line and before the tag into Fintan’s running waiting hands to go on to score the try. In the second half Raul got hold of a dropped ball from Tabard and went running into and past the opposition players and on to score his first of the day. Again the half was all stop start stop start and then a player would make a break on get out in front and score. The boys from Tabard were now busy at it and chasing Finchley’s lead. However, they were not good enough to break through Finchley’s defences enough to catch up. Then from three free starts and fine runs Toby scored the Alex scored and finally Toby scored the last of the game. This game gave Finchley some of it composure back and refocused the lads on the final game against another strong Hertford side.
Tries scored by Tom, Raul, 2 for Toby, 2 for Fintan and 2 for Alex
Game 8-6 to Finchley

Match 4 Finchley Aidan (capt.) vs Hartford Puma’s
U8 players: Aidan, Gareth, Sam, Jonah, Irah, Idrees, Louie and William

The second match for this team was with the Puma’s who were to be a tougher animal then the lynx. From a straight run Irah had a good pass to Jonah who scored his first of the day. Finchley were playing really aggressively with some good attacking tagging added with some wonderful passing. They played with real intent and purpose that gave Jonah a second try and then Aidan made it to the try line to score another. They kept up the hard work in the second half allowing Gareth through too score another try and then the final try of the game went to Louie. Unfortunately Finchley had two tries disallowed due to diving on the line, bring on contact rugby, bring it on.
Tries scored by Aidan, Gareth, Louie and 2 for Jonah
Game 6-5 to Hartford Puma’s

Match 5 Finchley Tom (capt.) vs Hertford Tiger’s
U8 players: Tom, Alex, Dominic, Oscar, Fintan, Raul, Max and Toby

During the third period of play the Hartford’s Lion’s and Tiger’s
(without the bear’s) played against each other. So our lads had a welcomed rest and practice session. Then Finchley faced the Tiger’s straight from their game with the lion’s. They were still a very strong team to face and came out fighting. Hertford started and against some good tagging they still pushed deep into Finchley’s half and scored the first try of the game. Finchley had the free pass but lost the advantage to a knock on and paid the price. It was not all one way however Hertford lost the ball due to too many steps after the tag only for it to be turned over to them and another push through the Finchley ranks to score. Then from the start Dominic had a fine fast run though to score Finchley’s first try. Finchley gained possession right on the Hertford try line and Max punished then with a try. Alex then had a fine run and passed to Raul who went on to score. The second half started well with a good run and try by Max. However, The Hertford tries kept on coming and Finchley were only just keeping their heads above water - when 3 tries in quick succession seemed to put the game beyond Finchley’s grasp. But, Finchley did not give up or lose heart and a try by Max and then Raul kept the game from being a complete whitewash in the end.
Tries scored by Dominic, 2 for Raul and 2 for Max
Game 9-5 to Hertford Tiger’s

Match 6 Finchley Aidan (capt.) vs Hartford Cheetah’s U8 players: Aidan, Gareth, Sam, Jonah, Irah, Idrees, Louie and William

The last match of this menagerie was to see Finchley play the Cheetah’s. Sam and Jonah both had a great game and both scored. Sam scored the first try of the game followed by another for Gareth the Cheetah’s also scored two in the first half but none in the second. At the start of the half William scored a great try from near the Cheetah’s try line he was also having a cracking day really finding his rugby feet. Irah scored and then yet another try from Gareth rounded of the days play. So just to round up as a team they played great there were very few loose passes but balanced with excellent tagging. Hard straight running from all the players showed Tom’s team how it should be done. Four of the tries were scored from turnover ball a meter from the try line and from good solid in your there face pressure. Apart from a few dubious decisions from the referee it was good rugby all round.
Tries scored by Sam, William, Irah and 2 for Gareth
Game 5-2 to Finchley

It was a glorious sunny spring day and saw some great Rugby being played on what were very nice playing fields. Again many thanks to Antony Smith for his report and keeping the score in the games I did not see. We won 3 games and lost 3 games so I feel Finchley could leave the grounds knowing we had faced some stiff opposition but had not let us down in any way and can be proud of the way they carried themselves on and off the pitch a really great bunch of kids. However, no rest at the moment as we have the Middlesex Tag Festival at Grasshoppers so full guns blazing and lets end the season on a high.