U7's Bishops Triumph at Colchester

Under 7’s at Colchester Tag Festival Match Report
We were drawn in Pool A, that seemed to contain most other club’s A teams and we had 5 matches to play. The structure of the competition didn’t allow for the two pool winners to play off against each other.

Our first match against Stowmarket ended in a good win with the highlight of the match being a superb passing movement….yes under 7’s passing before they are tagged!!!!... with William Marriott drawing his man before releasing a well timed pass to Dominic Rowe, which Dominic easily finished off despite having half the pitch to run.
Final score was 8-2
Try Scorers: Ryan Cox x 2, Archie Racey, Murray Davidson, Morgan Mahoney, Dominic Rowe x 2 and Teddy Pope.

Second match proved the toughest with our lads battling back from 3-2 down to make it 3-3 at final score. Eddie Bond’s relentless pressure on the opposition proved too much and he managed to gain possession of a loose ball which resulted in a try for the Bishops. The second half was characterised by some ferocious tagging (and yes you can have ferocious non contact tagging) which kept the Woodbridge opposition in their own half for most of the 2nd half, but credit to Woodbridge they also had a stout defence. We knew Woodbridge would probably do well in the tournament and that we’d have to win all our remaining games to have any chance of winning the group.
Try Scorers: Eddie Bond, William Marriott and Murray Davidson.

3rd up was Colchester A’s who we beat 7-3, with a superb solo try by Archie Racey, who was on the war path after being the victim of fending off whilst tagging! There were a couple more passing moves and an extremely well timed dummy pass by Teddy Pope.
Try Scorers: Dominic Rowe x 3, Morgan Mahoney x 2, Murray Davidson and Archie Racey.

4th game was against Ipswich, and the lads were starting to tire, well we had lost an hour’s sleep (BST) and getting to Colchester for 9.00am means an early start. However they all responded well and remained switched on for the entire match with a score line that flattered us in some ways but showed how clinical we were. Ipswich were certainly not a bad side and retained position well, but our consistent defence (with Thomas Gamble in particular tagging like a terrier) put them under pressure and forced mistakes from which we seemed to score every time.
Final score 8-1.
Try scorers: Dominic rowe x 2, Morgan Mahoney, Teddy Pope x2, Thomas Gamble and Murray Davidson x2.

Final game was against Colchester C and our scouts had spotted they had the quickest player in the tournament in their side. We were expecting life to be tough and were not disappointed but yet again due to our ferocious defending, Colchester where continually driven back. Murray Davidson and Ryan Cox were both superb, whilst Morgan Mahoney was his usual speedy self, finishing off most opportunities, including one slapstick moment when he ran between two defenders so quickly they collided with each other…no harm done though.
Final score a deserved 7-1.
Try Scorers: Dominic Rowe x2, Morgan Mahoney x 3, Murray Davidson and Ryan Cox

We now had to wait to get the final results, which was a bit of a nail biter as the judges had to go to tries for to decide the result. Woodbridge had got 28 tries in their 5 matches, whilst we had tipped them with 33.

What a result, what a day, what a team…from players, to Coaches, to Team Manager to parents. Everyone did their bit. Well done boys.

Steve Marriott (Coach)