An extremely busy weekend for the Brighton Blues under 8 squad, as 3 teams competed in two separate competitions, both highly competitive, and both some distance away from home. Having new faces attend training this year has allowed the squad the capacity to attend multiple functions. The invitation is always open to any new players – just come along to training at Waterhall at 10am any Sunday (but check our fixtures first!)

Chichester Tournament – 4th October

The U8 took two teams to Chichester Mini Rugby Festival on 4th October. The teams were fronting 5 players a piece so all the boys played 4 full games without substitution and were the only teams to do so. It was really impressive how the boys focussed all the time and improved considerably throughout the morning.
The ‘A team’ played some very strong opposition in Chichester and Haywards Heath A teams, arguably two of the best squads in Sussex and the first 2 matches were a baptism of fire for our mixed ability team. After the third match the Brighton team had set themselves a target of 3 tries in their final match. They delivered this target with gusto - scoring 5 tries against Pulborough A team to tie the match. Throughout the course of the day the team grew in stature and the qualities displayed were;
They never gave up - even under relentless opposition, they worked as a team - scoring a number of tries where the ball went through 4 pairs of hands, and by the end they were moving up together in a line in defence and forcing errors from the opposition. We should all be very proud of their development throughout the day given a couple of players had only their 2nd competitive festival run out and against the best A’s in Sussex. Special mentions to: Sam whose confidence grew as the day went on and had some fantastic straight runs and was unlucky not to score a try a couple of times, Stanley, who having returned from Twickenham late the night before, dusted off the cobwebs to show resilience with great defending and support play, Cameron for his fantastic strong running and great captaincy - vocal at leading his team. Rufus took a nasty knock in the first game, but could not leave his team mates down to 4 so came on, and completed his ‘never give up’ day by scoring a try from picking the ball up from a turnover on our try line, to run the length of the pitch to score the equalising score. Jude also had a great game with his fantastic strong running and tagging. His experience and strength helped the team and was core to pretty much every attack.
The ‘B team’ started well in the game to Chichester, but lost by 1 try following a dubious decision against them. The 2nd game we also lost by just 1 try against Midhurst but we recovered well against Pulborough to draw the game and then we convincingly beat Haywards Heath in the final game 6-4.
There were notable performances from all the players with superb commitment and effort from all. Good work on support play and some great running and passing. Great tagging too. We could have been a bit more disciplined with our defensive line and our situational awareness at restarts. Special mentions to: Alex for his tenacity and great tagging. Will G for great support play and scoring his first tries for the club. Louis for consistency across all four games and always being first to form the defensive line. And William D for great running and a couple of excellent interceptions. Man of the match was Theo for his great running and try scoring whilst just recovering from a heavy cold.

Kings Tounament - 4th October

It was a glorious morning for rugby at the Kings 6-a-side tournament. Bigger pitches, ‘7 tags and it's a turnover to the opposition’, ‘the touch line is their enemy’; - lots for the boys to take on board at the start of this new season.
All of the six teams in the group were really well matched and there was lots of fantastic attacking and defensive rugby played throughout the competition by all involved (including 2 teams from Harlequins no less!).
Daniel had a fantastic first tournament - off to a flying start scoring 2 tries in the first game against Kings. It was great to see a new face fit in so well with all of the other boys straight away. Overall the boys came away with two wins, two draws and one loss from the group stage which put them in 3rd place overall, just missing out on the finals.

Lots of really good tries were scored with everyone playing a part. The Kings' supporters were overheard on a number of occasions commenting on our attacking support play, which was really good to hear and credit to the coaching Jonny and the team are giving the boys.
The loss was against 'Harlequins B', with the boys so unlucky to lose to a last minute try after a dropped ball. This was the only difference between the teams. With no substitutes on the day all of the boys showed real commitment and team spirit to soldier through the competition despite a few bumps and bruises. The ‘Blues’ U8’s finished on a high with a 9-7 win against the 'Warriors'.
There were some excellent defensive performances particularly from the ‘Kings' teams which will give us something to focus on in training. Kings 2 went on to win the group and play off for the final and we were unlucky not to beat them drawing 3-3 in the group (and with Oliver bundled to the floor after breaking the defensive line for the match winner, cruelly missed by the home official!). On another day, with the rub of the green, you never know how things may have finished up.
All in all a really great day at Kings and we hope to go back again next season, and we’re all looking forwards to next week already.

Kings Scores :
Game 1 (Kings 2) (5-5 draw) - Daniel 2, Bailey 2, James 1
Game 2 (Old Reigatonians) (7-6 win) - Oliver 3, Bailey 2, Daniel 1, James 1
Game 3 (Harlequins B) (4-3 loss) - Bailey 1, Daniel 1, Felix 1
Game 4 (Kings 3) (3-3 draw) - Bailey 1, Daniel 1, Oliver 1
Game 5 (Warriors) (9-7 win) - Oliver 3, Bailey 3, Daniel 3

Kings 3 won the Competition.

Thanks to Steve Carrington and Jerry Pert for their contributions
Guy Carter

Group 2
1 – KING’s 2
2 –Brighton
3 – Old Reigatians 2
4 –Warriors 2
5 –Harlequins 2
6 – KING’s 3