U11 Rugby at the Loretto 7’s Tournament

2^nd place (out of 9 teams)

The U11 squad put forward a team of 10 boys to take part in the Loretto 7-a-side tournament on Sunday. We enjoyed some great matches and took part in some competitive and exciting rugby. With St Mary’s our first match, we started very strong, scoring first and looking confident. The St Mary’s boys are a good team, though, and they came back and scored 3 tries of their own. Despite this opening loss, we knew if we won the remaining games, we could still get through to the final. Luckily we did beat all the other opponents which put us into the Cup Semi-Final, up against a well-structured, passing team from Cundall Manor. It was an even game with some strong defense from both sides. In the end, we managed to score a winning try and won by one score.

This set us up against the St Mary’s team, again, that had comfortably beaten the rest of the group. I was proud with the way the boys went at the final, full of courage and skill. The game ebbed and flowed as both teams put everything into the match. Just before half-time, with the score at 2-1, we had a beautiful passage of play that needed one more pass for the winger to touch down in the corner but the pass went to ground. The second half was equally as fast-paced as the first half andI was so impressed with the boys’ fitness, commitment and skill level. Unfortunately, it ended up being a 4-2 loss. As I said to the boys, there was so much to be proud of in that game and their performance all day. They played some of the best rugby I’ve seen from an U11 squad and took part in what one of the observing coaches said was an “exhbition” of U11 Rugby. Well done, boys.