Sing along now! Campione, campione..

Sunday, April 3rd, 2016; a date to go down in history, or at least U7’s history!

Oakmedians’ Festival, and the latest road trip for the ERRFC U7’s - and their first win in a tournament!!

Using the normal Mini’s tournament formula of two teams playing round robin matches, with overall squad results, our U7’s played their hearts out! We very narrowly lost to Winchester by a try or two, but we made them work for the victory and never gave up. Then victories against Oaks, Oakmedians, Wimborne and Tottonians saw us finish second place in our group, only just behind Winchester.

Our Semi Final was against Tottonians, and we matched them try for try for most of the match, with Will Orchard really being the differentiator - Tott’s learnt the hard way not to drop the ball, as Will pounced on any fumbles and scored a try from every mistake to take us through to the final.

Winchester stood between us and the big trophy. Having lost to them in the round robins, some of the kids were understandably nervous - but you would never have known once the final started. Winchester are a well-drilled side, so having narrowly lost to them in the rounds, it was particularly pleasing to watch our teams move ahead by a handful of scores to take the match - both our teams won handsomely to give a squad result to be proud of. Winchester tried really hard, but they were no match for ERRFC!

There were many highlights of the day. Naturally, lifting the trophy was one of them, but looking beyond the competitive element…

…the kids were all brilliant. They all played their part and became team members; passing, running, supporting, try scoring all very much on shown...

…the team spirit was very strong, both on and off the pitch...

…the parents were incredibly supportive, rallying round to lift the spirits and help carry the kids through...

…the very positive comments and compliments from other coaches and team managers...

All in all, a fine day out :)