Twickenham Festival 2018

What a difference a week makes………………….

The Sungods

Bobby
Seb
Noah H
Charles
Theo
Max
Will L
Destin
Ronnie

This was an extraordinary festival for many reasons. It was organized like a great military operation, we played some new teams, there were lots of Aston Martins, it was one of the hottest April days of recent times and the boys played out of their skins. There was excellent running with the ball, much better pitch sense, intelligent passing, ferocious tackling and great team spirit and individual focus.

We played Old Ruts, Ruislip, Teddington, Harlequins and Rosslyn Park.

In the first four matches, the boys showed that they had progressed leaps and bounds from the Westcombe Park festival last week. They didn’t allow any of their opponents to get going with outstanding tackling and forced errors by pressing high up the pitch and creating pressure. The greatest advance was the willingness and intelligence to find a good pass at the right time, which lead to several of the tries. The boys also overcame a tricky match against some robust Ruislip opponents and some persistent high tackling. A less-together team might have stumbled at this point but the boys stuck together, fought hard and triumphed handsomely.

Our final match was against Rosslyn Park, who we expected to be the best drilled side on show, and so it proved. After a quick chat with their coach we agreed to let all of the boys play as it was the last game and festival of the season, so 8 vs 8! On a smallish pitch.

It is great testament to our team that they could match the opposition stride for stride, tackle for tackle and, crucially, try for try, with our sub being shared between the two Old Whitgiftian teams due to festival injuries.
This last match finished as a thrilling draw.

Festival score lines –

Old Whits 6 vs Old Ruts 2

Ruislip 1 vs Old Whits 9

In the time we have been coaches, this is the first time that I think every player has scored in a game!!

Harlequins 0 vs Old Whits 5

Teddington 2 vs Old Whits 6

Old Whits 3 vs Rosslyn Park 3

All the boys played brilliantly: here are just a few highlights.

Bobby ran like a whippet, as ever, and scored some thrilling tries and this was combined with real pitch sense and sensible passing and ball presentation.
Seb demonstrated great skill to collect the ball from the tackle and to distribute it quickly and accurately off either hand as well as running and tackling hard.
Charles kept great width in our team and stopped us from getting too narrow on the pitch. He also showed his tactical understanding by adapting his position at times, one of which led to a great support run and eventual try.
Noah has been stalwart in defence all season and this Sunday was no exception. He helped to cause chaos in opposition attacks which often lead to turnovers. He also showed his attacking prowess with some great tries.
Theo was a great all rounder showing a desire to attack and defend. His work rate and effort was first class throughout all five matches.
Max has undergone something of a tackling conversion since the start of the season. This week he continued the theme and took great pleasure from tackling time after time after time. A one handed grab of a flying winger en route to a certain try was just one of his excellent contributions.
Will L had another committed and hard working day out. He commanded the line well when he wore the captain’s armband and threw himself into the action with typical courage and determination.
Destin confounded all our opponents with his searing turn of pace and his strength whilst running with the ball. He scored some excellent tries but set up many more as he refused to go to ground, gained valuable metres and took defenders out of the game.
Ronnie transformed his attacking game with brilliant distribution in the last seconds before he went to ground. As ever it took many to stop him but only one Ronnie to stop them. Talismanic as ever, he tried hard from start to finish even taking a mighty blow to the ribs as he tackled hard in the final game.

All our players scored tries, all our players defended like lions and all should take great confidence from a top rate performance. They also cheered on the other teams in the breaks and were very well behaved. They did the club proud.

Red hot and rampant...well almost

The Old Whits 2’s team initially consisted of:

Luke Bradley
Tom Coombs
Sam Hearn
Finn Ledbitter
Louis Lister
Sam Pickering
William Sijmons
Cameron Todd
Tommy Turnbull

However both squads resembled a Barbarians team by the end of the tournament with injuries and ailments taking their toll.

We turned up on a beautiful sunny day to be greeted by a car park attendant masquerading as our very own Tom Leadbitter who quickly pointed us back out towards the exit. Nice try Tom. Once we’d unpacked and smothered everyone in sun cream we had plenty of time to be given our team (Kev and Tom had chosen already) as the 4 hour engineering project of erecting the tent was not necessary.

We lined up with the speedsters Cameron and Louis on the wings, Tommy T as the rock in the middle from which Finn L, Tom C Luke, Sam H and Sam P spread out on each side to complete the “pincer” formation. The boys stuck to this throughout and were not once reminded of their roles or formation. Well done. We also send our best wishes to William Sijmons who was sadly feeling unwell and although he really wanted to play had to leave. Get well soon.

First up was Ruislip. It took us a little while to find our feet (and brains) however we soon started to gel and scored some well worked tries. On two occasions we made 6 tackles only for the opposition to score on the 7th tackle. A little rusty but there were early signs of promise.

Old Whits 4 v Ruislip 2

As the temperature started to rise so did the boys thirst for rugby. Match 2 against Twickenham was the start of the “tackle-athon” The amount of tackles made by every boy increased match by match. The pressure we generated created several turnovers and we ran out comfortably first.

Old Whits 5 v Twickenham 2

The next game against Teddington was interesting as before the match had started the opposition coach told me he wanted to swap ends at the 5 minute mark. He deemed that we had an unfair advantage. Being the referee and having deliberately chosen that end for all of our matches I realised I had been rumbled and of course politely agreed, whilst keeping my thoughts to myself. Luckily the pitch Marshall was on hand and told the Teddington coach what he thought of his suggestion plus several other words of wisdom that I hadn’t considered. This was a tough game as Teddington could tackle and the boys realised that route one was not working. The scores were level at 1-1 when I initiated the impromptu swap over. Playing up hill we stuffed them. One of the best tries of the day took place with the ball being passed from hand to hand out of the tackle and critically before the tackle to finish a really good team try. It was very encouraging to see the boys starting to adapt their style of play against a team mid-match which is real progress. Great news.

Old Whits 4 v Teddington 1

On paper this looked hard and previous encounters against Old Ruts had been very close. This was probably our most complete performance of the day with tackling and passing to the fore. The boys played the entire 10 minutes at high tempo, high pressure rugby. Was really impressive to watch. One member of the capacity crowd commented on the way we pushed them back wave after wave with constant tackling which created several turnovers and in turn tries.

Old Whits 5 v Old Ruts 1

Last up was a very well drilled Hayward’s Heath side who all tackled in a line and kept the ball alive. What we had just done in the previous match happened to us. For the first five minutes they imposed their game on us and it felt like Rourke’s Drift only warmer and with no shade. We were on the receiving end of wave after wave of very hard tackling in one long line. We went 2-0 down. However heads didn’t go down and the boys took the hits time after time and then decided enough was enough. The boys upped their physicality and really fought fire with fire by some very hard tackling of their own which created a turnover. Possession was kept through 4/5 phases of punching holes in a weakening defence ending up in a thoroughly deserved try. Game on. From the restart we created another turnover with a huge hit and then alas as we moved up field the whistle blew for full time. Three factors contributed to this very narrow defeat. Firstly don’t give any team a 2-0 head-start, let alone a very well drilled one. Secondly when we started to punch holes in their tiring defence we failed to take advantage of passing the ball out wide on at least 4 occasions when we had a clear overlap. Lastly the expression “mind the gap” springs to mind as Hayward’s Heath were allowed to be constantly offside by the (Hayward’s Heath) ref for the entire match and the boys had no space to play in. However a really valiant effort and had we continued we would have won. Encouraging to see again the boys started to adapt their game to the opposition which is real progress.

Old Whits 1 v Hayward’s Heath 2

Key Learnings:

1-Rugby is a game of evasion
2-Pass the ball before the tackle if possible
3-Use the space out wide. We have clinical finishers aplenty.
4- Tackle and defend in a line across the pitch not perpendicular to it.

In Summary:

Each designated match captain did a great job of marshalling his troops in a vocal and and respectful manner. Amazing what an armband can do to the boys confidence and all of them stepped up to the plate. I believe that the blue captains armband was last seen with coach K Shah, one day mate, one day.

Every member of the squad scored at least one try, no one went into touch, knocked the ball on or did a forward pass.

Everyone tackled either on their own or in pairs and the team created turnovers in every single game.

Every opposition ball that hit the floor the boys dived to ground faster than a professional footballer.

There was blood, sweat and tears in abundance and the boys were wearing their “stud marks” with pride. Every individual had given all they physically could have done which showed.

So many positives from the whole squad and the smiles at the end of the tournament from both the boys and coaches is testament to a good day had by all.

I have not singled out any of the players as they all deserve huge credit for their performances. All the boys used the skill sets they are blessed with to their fullest potential which is what makes rugby union such a great game. Whether they are tall, fast, strong, nimble, good hands, intelligent or just hard grafters they all contributed.

Thanks to my fellow coaches on the day, it was such fun, with a special mention to Coach Matt for helping when Teddy was not available and his inspirational holiday snaps. The “Tiger” Mums (Rhion, Lettie, Katie and Ali) for herding cats, sun cream application, hydration and humouring middle-aged men with delusions of coaching grandeur.

Last but not least thank you for the unstinting support of all the parents, partners and relatives without whom none of this would be possible. It’s important to share the roller-coaster ride with ones nearer and dearest.

Onwards and Upwards!

Coaches Simon & Matt