Final Tag Game for the Under 8s at Chelmsford

Stortford U8s reversed the usual trend and started strongly in their first match of the tournament with a comfortable 8-6 win over Chelmsford Bulls. Momentum then seemed to go for the boys as they somehow managed to lose against Chelmsford Warriors in a game that was there for winning. In a game heading for a 5-5 draw, Chelmsford got possession and scored with the last play of the game to deliver a shock defeat. Next up for Stortford was Brentwood Mars. The boys never really got going again and succumbed to a 6-2 defeat to the eventual Pool A winners who went undefeated throughout the Pool games. Heads had dropped during this third match but a 40 minute break and a chance to get a bite to eat worked in our favour. The last Pool match was against Westcliff who had looked impressive in previous games. After some verbal proclamations from our opponents about how the game would finish our boys had their tails up and were raring to go. A wonderful display of attacking rugby matched with serial tagging and pushing up on the opponents to restrict them space meant Stortford went into half time with a 4-3 lead. Westcliff then swapped their whole squad for the second half as they did for all of their games. It was to no avail though as our boys won the second half too to record a 7-5 victory. We then had to wait for an age for the last game between the two Chelmsford sides to be recorded. Stortford finished third in the group losing out on second place by one try to Westcliff. We then had a third place final with Pool B's Chelmsford Bears. After a rousing speech of Churchillian proportions from Michael Register "boys, this is your last ever game of tag, go out and enjoy it...etc" everything was set up for an epic game. A close fought first half saw Stortford making a few errors and turning over possession too often and led to a half time 5-3 deficit. After a half time huddle the boys started the second half with a fire in their bellies. Very quickly Stortford had got the game back to 5-5. Chelmsford then scored to make it 6-5 with only minutes to go. Stortford lost possession and during a Chelmsford attack the ball went to ground. Ollie Green in possibly an offside position picked the ball up and ran three quarters of the length of the pitch and dived in to level the game with a minute to go. From the restart Chelmsford broke down the left wing and looked to be running in a try to break Stortford hearts. A yard from the line the Chelmsford player stepped into touch. Stortford had one last play to try and snatch a remarkable victory. The ball was passed to Fraser Williams who turned on the afterburners and ran in another fine individual try to record an amazing last play victory. The boys were ecstatic as too were the parents watching. I had to restrain myself from doing a Jose Mourinho down the touch line. It was a fitting end to the day for the boys who had played some really good rugby and particularly as we only had 7 players for the tournament. Everyone made a massive contribution and it truly was a team effort that got us over the line in the final game. We'll done Louie Ebbles, Harry Evans, Ollie Green, Sam Register, Oliver Sisterton, Fraser Williams and Max Williams. You did your parents, coaches and most importantly BSRFC U8s proud.
Report by Roland Green