U8 players for Finchley RFC: Alex, Aidan, Dominic, Dmitry, Gareth, Oscar, Fintan, Raul, Tom, William, Louie, Jonah, Irah, Tyler and Toby

I have heard of multi-tasking, but being a man I am no good at that, but multi-sporting this is new one on me. So we all arrived at The Grasshoppers Rugby/Swimming Festival/Gala ready to play and do the front crawl. I passed a fish on the way to one of the games asking where the under 7’s coach Tim was and then seeing Coach Ian reefing in goggles and a snorkel was most amusing. The weather men said it would rain and rain hard and they were proved right. In fact the rain was so good it won the tag tournament and we were all forced to go home. The rain was so victorious it also decided to keep us all in the ground and in a slightly scary way it almost won that game as well. We could not get out of the grassy hilly wet car park, provided at £5 a car, for quite some time we had a spinning wheel a gogo time. Coach Ian asked not to mention the gazebo, but I will say that I do remember camping as a kid and at the end having to pack away the heavy wet canvas tents in the rain. It is not the best thing to have to do so thankfully the Gazebo rests in peace forever in a field at Grasshoppers or at least a bin at Grasshoppers. Due to the rain all the note books got very wet and the pens could not work so the match reports will be short to say the least as they are mainly from memory and my memory at that along with Antony and Joe so thanks to them.

Match 1 Finchley Oscar (capt.) vs Ruislip (A)
U8 players: Tom, Alex, Dmitry, Oscar, Fintan, Gareth and Tyler

Finchley won the toss and play was started by Oscar and it looked from the start that Ruislip had the edge with a formidable defensive line and some fine tagging. The first blood was to Ruislip and it looked like the writing was on the wall as with many Finchley games. However, never count your chickens or players before the referee blows the whistle. It was not long before Dmitry had scored a try followed up by a try for Oscar and then a long run and try from Alex. Finchley were now well into this game with some great ball passing and it was Ruislip’s turn to do the chasing. Unfortunately, there are still players who seem to want to do all the running and none of the passing and they then find themselves in heavy traffic and isolated from the rest of the team and lose the ball allowing the opposition to score. Luckily when Finchley found were in this position they pulled off some outstanding tagging and the situation was saved from the brink of defeat. With a fine solid pass from Fintan to Gareth he got a try and then a great pass from Gareth to Fintan he scored the fifth and the game was Finchley’s.
Tries scored by Dmitry, Fintan, Gareth, Alex and Oscar
Game 5-3 to Finchley

Match 2 Finchley Irah (capt.) vs Kilburn Cosmos (B)
U8 players: Aidan, Jonah, Irah, Louie, Raul, Dominic, Toby and William

If the first match showed what was good about Finchley’s play the second highlighted all the things that can be bad about Finchley’s play. Too many mistakes - knock one’s and bad passes added to running down blind alleys into traffic and getting isolated from the team and basically playing as individuals. The game looked panicky with the ball being chucked into the air too many times and not focused enough. No team is going to win like that partially at a tournament like Grasshoppers where there is silver ware to fight for and a group stage to get out of on top. However, Raul managed to score two for the team so it cannot have been all bad.
Tries scored by Raul 2
Game 7-2 to Kilburn Cosmos (B)

Match 3 Finchley Oscar (capt.) vs Bank of England (A)
U8 players: Tom, Alex, Dmitry, Oscar, Fintan, Gareth and Tyler

The second game for Oscar’s team was to be against Bank of England who although good team were beaten by Finchley when we visited them this season. Bank of England must have been out on their fine pitches practicing hard as they were a tougher bunch than last time. The play was actually fairly even and both teams were defensively very strong so lots of stops and starts eating up the time. An out of touch decision disallowed a Bank of England try so they did not pull ahead allowing Finchley too keep pushing forward into their half and into a scoring position. A good run by Gareth scored Finchley’s first try. Then after the Bank of England disallowed try Fintan had a strong run that was helped with a good pass from Alex to score the second. The score would have been more to Finchley if certain players had passed the ball early and not tried to do it all themselves again. This allowed Bank of England came back to score two of their own to even the match score. But, we had a slight disagreement with the referee at the end of the game who had the score 3-1 to Bank of England this was quickly sorted out when the Bank of England supporters give the correct score to the referee.
Tries scored by Fintan and Gareth
Game 2-2 Draw

Match 4 Finchley Irah (capt.) vs Rosslyn Park (B)
U8 players: Aidan, Jonah, Irah, Louie, Raul, Dominic, Toby and William

The second match for this team was much the same as the first game, too panicky and too many mistakes. From what I actually saw of the game it looked like a ball tossing competition not a rugby game. However, seriously when they knuckled down and played there was still some fine runs and good tagging going on. The score was not at all embarrassing and was only out by one try. So best to be positive! all the boys played with true spirit and true grit. They just must all train to improve the passing as well as running particularly as we move from tag to contact rugby.
Tries scored by Raul 2
Game 3-2 to Rosslyn Park (B)

Match 5 Finchley Oscar (capt.) vs Bye
U8 players: Tom, Alex, Dmitry, Oscar, Fintan, Gareth and Tyler

All I can say about this game is having got the boys dry in the clubhouse I was very glad not to have to drag them out into the rain to play. They were well up for more games and would have quite happily dived off the balcony into the mud to play again.
No score

Match 6 Finchley Irah (capt.) vs Wasps (B)
U8 players: Aidan, Jonah, Irah, Louie, Raul, Dominic, Toby and William

In the final game and in the pouring rain Finchley started to get it together and played well as a team. This team pressured the opposition, ran straight at them and passed with skill considering conditions. The rain was now terrible but, this did not panic them and they passed the ball to the nearest supporting player. The team tagged well and defensively were stronger than the last two games. It was exciting play to watch and they stuck at it all the way. Unfortunately, having played so spiritedly in such bad weather the referee chose to hold Finchley at the halfway line for 20 seconds waiting to take a free pass and then blew the whistle for full time. If they had the time for the last play and I am sure they would have had a great opportunity to get a draw. Judging by a few tears at full time it meant a lot to the so hopefully they will play as well at the next competitive matches.
Tries scored by Raul, William, Irah and Jonah
Game 5-4 to Wasps (B)

What a difference a week makes we could have done with last week’s sunshine and not the usual Grasshoppers downpour. A really mixed bag of results and games with some great passing play and some truly bad passing that needs working on. As we all know by noon the pitches were becoming dangerously water logged - as was the car park. The organisers took the difficult decision to abandon the knock out stage of the competition that was to be played in the afternoon and let us all struggle home, wet and cold, but not wholly disheartened with the mornings play. The boy’s had faced some truly horrendous conditions and had played through them without a single complaint - so well done to both teams and all the parents and coaches who came down on Sunday. Gazebo RIP.