U13 BOYS VALUES TOURNAMENT - SUNDAY 1st OCTOBER

After the clean sweep with one team at Cranleigh the previous week, U13s fielded two teams at Chobham on Sunday 1st October.

The much debated later start seemed to suit the U13 Guildford 1 team with Rob getting they boys fully focused in the warm up and that preparation was soon to pay off.   

The Chairman however was not the only one laying foundations on this mild start to October, an ad-hoc convening of the Tour committee, somewhere between the car park and pitch side, led to Anthony Davies securing a slot at The Bournemouth Festival for the 12th-14th April 2024 for the U13 Tour.  More details to follow shortly, but if anyone is in the privileged and generous position of sponsoring the Tour kit this year, please do get in touch.  There was also welcome news that several Mum's were keen to join the tour this year, although as accommodation details and stories of Jeremy's funnel emerged, one could sense some doubt creeping in.

On the field, first up were the hosts Chobham, who are known to have a strong and talented team but Guildford came out of blocks firing on all cylinders and shocked the home team with some ferocious rucking and powerful runs.  Peter Dimov, who would go on to have an outstanding afternoon, linked well with half backs Harry Brockhurst and Oliver Kyle, to have an early surge up the middle of the park, the forwards did well recycling and again the ball was fed to Peter for him to break several tackles on his way to the line.

Following the restart, a couple of Guildford attacks were thwarted by unfortunate knock on's but each time Guildford managed to win the scrum against the head. When the ball made it to Seb Moss on the wing, he beat several players until a contingent of Chobham players stopped him on the line, only for Charlie Cooke to neatly rip the ball and dive over for a 2-0 half time score.

Post the restart, the slope in Guildford's favour should have seen the boys extend their lead but Chobham upped their game and put a lot of pressure on the away team, resulting in a few handling mistakes.  Whilst Seb and Peter again had a great couple of attacks, Guildford were unable to increase their advantage and instead had to soak up significant pressure at the top end of the pitch.   Despite a great team defence, especially from Edward Hunt and Charlie Cooke, eventually the sizeable Chobham centre crashed through the middle to score their only try of the game.  Final score 2-1.

On to Guildford 1's second game of the afternoon and time for Eddi Matthews to take on the role of the wrecking ball.  Seb Moss opened scoring and then quickly followed up after Peter Dimov neatly gathered a Haslemere knock on and released Seb for a race to the corner for his second.   Some fantastic Guildford handling followed the restart and once Seb covered a good portion of the field, the ball made it back down the line for Jack J to finish in the opposite corner.

Haslemere were denied a walk in try when their attacking player slipped off a Guildford high tackle but play was pulled back for the mandatory penalty which Guildford successfully defended.

As in the Chobham match, Guildford seemed to lose a bit of shape in the second half allowing the opponents to gain more ball and win turnover.  Although there was some excellent jackal work by Guildford, that seemed fair play from the sidelines, but Guildford failed to heed the warnings from the Chobham ref and gave away several penalties, leading to Haslemere's first score.  Guildford responded well with a good team score for George Lye followed up by Peter making it a hat trick for the day after a great counter attack by Leo Booth.  Eddi stormed through much of the Haslemere team before popping to Charlie who made the scoreline 6-1.  With the game won Guildford had a small lapse of concentration to allow Haslemere in for one final try.   Final score 6-2.

Guildford 2 kicked off its campaign against Old Guildfordians.  Perhaps it was the unusual afternoon start or the uphill run in the first half but the OGs got ahead of Guildford 2 quickly with two tries before half time. The OG's struggled to adapt to the new tackle height rule and were pulled up continuously for infringements against us but they still managed to get the ball wide and run around us. We were not able to turn the match around in the second half like we had when we played them last season. Next up was Chobham, the team to beat.  Guildford 2 rallied for this match and demonstrated a real fighting spirit with more activity in the ruck and more balanced possession.  Were it not for the Jonah Lomu inspired full field length tries by the Chobham star player (three times!), then the score would have reflected the otherwise even match up and much improved performance from Guildford 2.  Guildford 2 kept this momentum up to beat Reeds Weybridge in the final match with a superb display of the newly allowed fly-hacking for this age group from Jack Jamieson, this converted an almost certain turnover from a fumble into what reminded most parents on the sideline of a football goal but scored the winning try.  Guildford 2 were happy to take the 1-2 result from the afternoon and know that a quicker start can reverse that result next time.

Great to see players and parents all go on to support the G2 teams remaining matches with a few cameo appearances to boot.  Really good event laid on by Chobham RFC at short notice with an excellent atmosphere, maybe something to these afternoon fixtures.

Next up, away to the south coast and Gosport and Fareham, at least we can be assured of avoiding the closed A3 junction.
 

Return to News Page