The Under 9 coaching squad have returned a little tired but very proud after enjoying an exceptional weekend of rugby from the boys and girls of the Redingensians U9 touring squad. The parents and siblings were great tour supporters and are no doubt proud and tired in equal amounts too!

The tour party swelled this year to 89 after taking under its wing first time tourists the U7s. An amazing 25 players made up the U9 squad and the U7s brought 16 players along allowing us to field a full complement of Rams, Titans and Dragons teams for both age groups.

The U8s joined us for the Saturday night festivities and helped the 119 who attended enjoy a 65kg spit roast pig, 70 hot dogs, 70 jacket potatoes, 130 jam donuts and, parents only of course,18 bottles of Prosecco and they made a big dent in the 486 pints of Twyford Tipple. At Sundays festivities the touring party ate its way through £500 worth of fish and chips and drank most of the remaining Twyford Tipple. Much fun was had by all and too much fun had by a few!

The U9s were very well represented at the Festival with 20 teams being entered in four pools from the likes of Chipping Norton, Bromley, Old Rutlishians, Darfordians and Maidenhead. Despite the enormity of the event our U9s settled in quickly and enjoyed their rugby.

Rams made the strongest start on the Saturday with 2 wins and 1 loss in Pool C with their best performance seeing them ease past Chippy Panthers 9:4. Whilst over in Pool B the Dragons were getting used to a new mix of players in the team and hit their stride in game 3 when the team gelled and won a tough local derby beating Maidenhead Sharks 5:2. Titans grew in confidence over the Saturday and on Sunday put in a strong performance against Buckingham drawing 4:4 in the bowl semi-final. They only missed out in reaching the bowl final on try’s scored. For the Titans this was a superb performance for a developing team some of whom were at the end of just their first season of rugby.

With 20 teams entered and Redingensians very nearly managing to get three teams to the final stages of this major festival the coaching team were more than happy. The Rams and Dragons gave them broader smiles growing in strength on the Sunday and playing some amazing rugby to reach the cup and plate semi-finals respectively. The players gave it their all in the semi-finals playing open, expansive rugby and showing the coaches what the culmination of a year’s training could produce. The teams moved the ball with ease stretching defences and patiently waiting for gaps to exploit whilst putting up a resilient display in defence and putting in some very big tackles. The Dragons showed their potential winning 6:1 against Chipping Norton Panthers whilst the Rams won against Bromley Wasps 6:0 as they conceded the match due to injuries. The players were enjoying their rugby and were all smiles going into the cup and plate finals.

With butterflies in a few players’ stomachs and hordes of nervous parents cheering them on the Rams came up against Letchworth in the cup and the Dragons met the Dartfordian Tigers in the plate. Sadly both matches were lost by the slimmest of margins Rams going down 2:0 and Dragons 2:1. Despite the outcome both teams quickly bounced back showing respect to the better opponents on the day and were happy just knowing that they had played their best rugby. It was also nice to get the cup and plate runners up silverware to bring back to OBR.

All three Redingensian’s U9 teams should be proud of their achievements on tour and should look forward to another great season as U10s.

Congratulations from Tour Coaches Gareth, Luke, Mark, Mitch, Phil, Neale and Robin and with big thanks to U9 and U7’s Tour
Manager Elaine without whom none of this would have happened!

Saturday and Sunday Awards

Saturday Players of the Day Rams: Jack Hayter Dragons: Finn Suter Titans: Jack Mitchell
Overall Player of the Day: Nic Jessett
Parent Muppet of the Day: Viv Li for not reading the tour instructions and asking if she needed to bring tea bags!
Player Muppet of the Day: Zach Paul for losing his boots

Sunday Players of the Day Rams: Alex McLoughlin Dragons: Theo Pett-Ridge Titans: Zach Paul
Overall Player of the Day: Ollie Ireland
Parent Muppet of the Day: Coach Gareth for flooding his room
Player Muppet of the Day: Finley Hanham for letting his team walk on him in training!

Overall Tour Awards
Parents Player of the Tour Rams: Nic Jessett Dragons: Finn Suter Titans: Noah Frost
Coaches Player of the Tour Rams: Freddie Meader Dragons: Lucy Simpson Titans: Joseph Barrett

Teams
Rams: Abrice Bell, Alex McLoughlin, Elias Cevikel-Li, Freddie Meader, Jack Hayter, Ollie Ireland, Sam Staples, Nic Jessett

Dragons: Alfie Morris, Angus Bain, Finn Suter, Lucy Simpson, Nathan Green, Thomas Croskell, Rhys Warwick, Theo Pett-Ridge, William Hibberdine

Titans: Carter Lawrence, Dylan Gozzi (with cover from Dragon’s William Hibberdine), Finley Hanham, Fionn McDermott, Jack Mitchell, Joseph Barrett, Noah Frost, Zach Paul

Many thanks

Gareth Warwick