Under 8's Fly into the semi's

It was an early start for the A team on Saturday as the coach left at 7.45 am so that we could begin our long journey to compete in the ETIHAD AIRWAYS Curtain Raiser Cup. The competition includes some of the best sides in the South of England/Channel islands and even just qualifying for the Semi Finals involves winning a “Mini Festival” at the prestigious Twickenham Stoop, home of Harlequins RFC. It was important to make a good first impression and turning up on in the official Saracens team coach certainly turned a few heads! We were up against 5 teams that we had not met before, 3 from Surrey and one from both Kent and Sussex.

It was a cold November morning but if we needed reminding how quickly you need to warm up for these events then our first opponents, Blackheath certainly did that! We are not sure what they are fed in Kent but these boys were huge. Their opening play was a very well rehearsed switch-pass move that put us immediately on the back foot and ended up with us being a try down. We responded with a try of our own, however this was somewhat controversial as despite us clearly passing the 7th TAG turnover rule the referee had lost count and he awarded the try. In fact the referee played 6 TAG turnovers from there on in but it least it was the same for both sides! This helped us to regroup and some better tagging and tries from Alfie, Cameron, Kier and Kyle put us to what we thought was 4-2. A late Blackheath try should have been merely a consolation but after some debate the game was recorded as a 4-4 draw. To be fair our first try was iffy to say the least so we didn’t feel too hard done by.

With just a 5-minute break we were immediately back on for game 2 but this time we were up against Lewes from Sussex. Thankfully we were much better organised from the start and our slick attacking unit which was being orchestrated by Alfie and the hard work in defence from Louis and Joey helped us to run away with the game by 6 tries to 1. Once again the whole team seemed to pick up the pace as the game progressed and for the record Alfie, Isaac, Jack Briars, Nathan Blackmore and Kier 2 scored our tries.

Game 3 was a tense affair against a small but pacey Old Guildfordian’s side that were difficult to tag. In an open game both sides traded tries and the match seemed to be heading for a draw until Nathan Gammon raced to the line in the last play of the game. We won 7-6 much to the delight of our army of fans/parents who were also creating their own big match atmosphere at the Stoop. Other try scorers were Isaac, Cameron, Guy, Alfie, Keir 2 and a terrific solo effort from Saul.

With Blackheath, our main rivals for top spot slipping up against Old Guildfordians and Haselmere, we were now in control of the group and knew that a win and a draw would see us through. However the boys were not satisfied with that and decided to play their best rugby of the day in the last 2 games. Game 4 will always be remembered as Nathan Blackmore’s game as he jinked his way past the hapless Cranleigh side and helped himself to a hat trick of tries. Further tries from Isaac, Saul, Nathan Gammon and the unstoppable Kier secured a convincing 7-3 win.

So game 5 arrived and our opponents, Haselmere, had the unenviable task of stopping the Welwyn express. We started well and always seemed to be in control but somehow we never pulled comfortably away from them and had to keep on our mettle for the full 10 minutes. Jack Briars, who was Captain for the day, led by example and rallied his teammates for one final push. He joined Saul, Kyle and Nathan Gammon in a sidestep try scoring competition, which was also complemented by the fantastic footwork displayed by Kier in covering the whole length of the pitch to score his try. We eventually won the game 5-3.

It was another fantastic display by the team and certainly won plaudits from the Harlequins Community coaches who praised the boys for their disciplined approach and team spirit displayed throughout the day. See this link to Harlequins website: here

So we are through to the Semi-Finals which will be another early start in March 2008. By then we hope to be in even better form and in with a good chance of getting to the finals.

The day finished with the team watching Harlequins playing out a 13-13 draw with Cardiff Blues in the Heineken Cup, which (in our humble opinion) failed to live up to the excitement of our competition earlier!

U8's at Quins