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Melbourne U9's North West Rugby Heartland Tour |
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Written by John Stokes
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
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The village of Melbourne competing with some of the mighty names in north west
rugby..including .Widnes, Rochdale, Huddersfield, Blackburn, Trafford and Warrington RFC. Kevin Brown Reports...
The U9's attended their
first ever Melbourne minis tour, their first match faced a very steep learning
curve when met by Liverpool St Helens, the rugby league background and the
referees continual acceptance of both 'proper' hand offs and 'dump/spear
tackling' intimidated the Melbourne players and they failed to come to terms
with the physicality of their opponents. As the game progressed you could see
the confidence improve but it was too late to change the result, nevertheless
the U9's now knew what it would take to progress at the following days Rochdale
festival.
In the bar afterwards the
U9's showed their opponents how to perform in the singing stakes,
and their 'bare chested - shirt waving' final chorus of "singing in the rain"
had many onlookers smiling to themselves.
Later that day the Tour party enjoyed a
visit to Camelot Leisure Park, and the sight of 130 + Melbourne RFC children
and Parents sporting their wonderful tour shirts was a sight to behold.
Congratulations to all for their excellent behaviour - you were a credit to our
Club.
The following day the whole
tour party (u9-u12 ) attended the Rochdale RFC Festival , the hosts had
an impressively positioned and spacious clubhouse which drew admiring glances
when MRFC arrived. Now this is a real rugby heartland, and
many children play rugby league as well as rugby union both at school and in
local clubs, in total 15 other clubs clubs sent their best players to this
tournament and Widnes, Rochdale, Huddersfield, Blackburn and Trafford
(Manchester) were all represented.
So there you have it.......
the village of Melbourne competing with some of the mighty names in north west
rugby. Melbourne U9s , played all of their 'Tour squad', whereas the other
competing clubs were able to field their best nine players. Despite this U9's
won their league with fine single try victories over Lymm (James Davies scored
) and then Leigh (Harry Duffy) they progressed into the semi finals where they
were drawn against Trafford RFC (Manchester) the game was extremely tight and
with only a minute to go James Davies stole the ball and dodged his way in for
the winning try.
This pitted lil ol
Melbourne U9's against the renowned Warrington RFC , and after 10 minutes of a
thoroughly absorbing contest both teams defences had held firm 0 - 0, Melbourne
had had one wonderful opportunity with a ruck on their opponents line but an
untimely handling penalty allowed Warrington to clear their lines much to the
relief of their coaches, all independent watchers had Melbourne ahead on both
territory and pressure but there now followed a 5 min period of 'Golden try' to
try and find a winner, otherwise the trophy would be shared . Melbourne pressed hard and there was some wonderfully committed tackling,
but with only 1 min remaining the ball found it's way to Warringtons pace-man
(who'd already notched up 9 tries in the tournament!) & he finally broke
clear to score the winning try. So close, but yet.................their
performances deserved greater reward but this group of players will grow tougher
for this 'final moment' disappointment.
The Melbourne Players were
gutted, but their effort and commitment was truly impressive and filled the
watching parents with much pride, it's fair to say that never has a runners up
medal been earned in such a bruising and committed way. Because of the
collective spirit shown by the whole U9's Tour party, some seasoned watchers
think this performance ranks as one of the best this talented group of players
has ever produced. Well done to all who took part.
The tour was rounded off in a fine way
with the traditional coach sing song on the homeward trip (never fall asleep on
the coach Simon Williams !) with a number of individuals showing a willingness
to belt out a good tune (especially the 'Horses Bum' ' alloette' & 'Lady in
red' lyrics) in front of their peers and parents, all in all a fantastic tour
enjoyed by the coaches and parents and players alike. Roll on Tour 2009 !
Kevin Brown
Lead Coach MRFC U9's
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