The U9’s were keen to test themselves against such opposition and the coaches could see from the warm up that the U9’s were ‘itching’ to get involved on a glorious but fresh January morning.

From the outset Melbourne tore into their opposition, turning over possession time and time again so much so that Paviors could hardly get out of their own half, the U9’s were tackling like banshees and at times Paviors were offloading and passing going backwards ! Melbourne’s superior mauling skills stole ball off the opposition at lots of opportunities and their quick feet and support play brought a steady stream of tries. Melbourne had such a mean defence with everyone contributing, that Paviors rarely found any gaps to go through, and on the odd occasion that they did Joshua Betesta’s cover tackling snuffed them out to such an extent that he was awarded the tackling performance of the week. Max Lowson’s work rate and mauling skills took the performance of the week award, but to be entirely honest it was a real team performance of such quality that it left the large Melbourne support with beaming smiles. A number of Paviors parents acknowledged the skill levels of Melbourne’s U9’s.

Final score was 60 – 0 , and tries were finished off by Ewan Ferguson, Max Lowson, Callan Harvey, Harry Duffy[2], James Davies[3] and Joshua Betesta[3]

Melbourne U9 Saxons seemed to be a little stand offish at first and Paviors took an early lead in their fixture, however with George Thomas captaining by example the Saxon’s gradually worked out how to stop the powerful forwards of Paviors and soon started to steal their ball in number of pressure rugby turnovers. Saxons soon scored a couple of tries and just before half time Bradley Hunter powered over for a slick try. In the second half Joe Todd (on his debut) darted across for a lovely try and even had the confidence show a fabulous side step along the way.

Following Charlie Tomlinson’s lead Luke Walsh tacked with ferocity beyond his size but the Paviors players could find no way past a strong tackling Melbourne defence. George Thomas was awarded the tackling performance of the week, and Joe Todd’s impressive debut saw him get the performance award.

Final Score was 40 – 5 with tries by James Sookias, Will Bartram, Joe Todd, Oli Cope, Max Lowson[2] and Bradley Hunter[2]

So , 100 points scored & only 5 conceeded, with 13 different players crossing the try line , what a fabulous start to the new year for the U9’s, The Paviors coach appeared slightly perplexed, “I don’t understand it - we seemed off our game” he commented

“ I don’t think my players let you get on it ” replied Coach Kevin Brown with only a slight hint of a grin of satisfaction…