Wallingford U13's Festival

On Sunday 5th October we travelled to the Wallingford Under 13's Tournament for our first competitive matches of the season.Could we put into practise what we had done in training.

Bicester 35 Chinnor 0
A great start to the day and the boys played the way we know they can.The forwards worked hard sucking in the Chinnor defense and after several phases of play the ball was then moved wide and tries were scored.It was a really good performance and tries were scored by Ed,Giles 2,Tom 2.All tries were converted by Tim 4 and Max 1.

Bicester 0 Oxford Harlequins 14
What a let down this game proved to be.The boys went on the pitch thinking we would have to just turn up to win.We were lacking in every part of the game and showed a complete lack of commitment.Before we knew where we were we were 14-0 down.A few harsh words at half time produced a much better second half performance but it was too little too late.Admittedly the standard of the referee was appalling but it was equally bad for both teams and we need to rise above this sort of issue and play our own game plan.We did not concede again in the second half but we could not drag ourselves back into the game.

Due to the format of the tournament we then went into the plate competition having scored one less try than Oxford Harlequins.

Bicester 0 Witney 7
This was our plate semi final and played in poor conditions again with the referee that had plagued us all day.It was a real battle of attrition between two fairly equally matched teams.We had several opportunities to take charge of the game but either failed to make the most of the opportunities or the decisions again went against us.In the end we were undone by Witney who made the most of their opportunity and scored late in the game.There was no coming back from that and our day was over.

What can we take away from the day when we started so well and then fell apart?
We must play to our strengths and stick to the game plans we work on in training.If we do this and have the right mental attitude and importantly COMMITMENT we can do much better.We will have the opportunity to put this right in the near future so lets make the most of it next weekend against Towcester.

We may not have had the best team but I think we had the best catering.Thank you to Benoit for the pastries,Alan and Richard for the hotdogs and Dawn for the flapjacks.Thank you also to Anne Grant for drying out our rather wet tent.