First Festival of the Season

This week Woodham travelled to Thurrock for the first festival of the season. The weather forecast was for a cold wet day, but that didn’t dampen the team’s spirit. Woodham were drawn into Group A, along with Upminster, Eaton Manor, Stanford and Rochford. Group B was Old Dartfordians, Braintree, Westcliff and the hosts Thurrock (with Dagenham dropping out before the festival started).

Woodham were first up against Upminster, to start the tournament. Woodham seemed a different team this week, and the tackling improved dramatically. The defence was good with Woodham pushing Upminster back several times to force the turn over. However, several mistakes were quickly punished by Upminster. After 10 minutes Upminster came out on top, 3–2.

Woodham’s next opponents were Rochford. The game was tightly contested with excellent defence on both sides. However Woodham struggled to get the ball out of the tackles and down the line to the free space. Final score after 10 minutes was 1-1.

Next up was Eaton Manor, who had a strong side. Again Woodham’s defence was good with notable efforts from Ben, Joshua N and Toby in the tackle. Ben also took the advantage on a loose ball, pouncing on it like a lion on its prey. However, Eaton Manor was a stronger side tacking the match 5-2 at the end of 10 minutes.

Woodham’s last match of the group stage saw the team play Stanford, who we have at home next week. Again Woodham’s tackling was good, and the extra coaching before the match seemed to help at some points with passing the ball out down the line. Score at the end of 10 minutes was 3-1.

The team’s excellent play, unfortunately not reflected in the result and Woodham support the other teams in the group A by propping up the bottom of the table.

The last match of the day was against the 5th place from Group B, who happened to be the host team, Thurrock. The match was for the Shield and Woodham dominated the first couple of minutes of the game with excellent tackles and defensive work. Woodham came out on top at the end of 10 minutes, with what was an excellent game of Rugby and the score at the whistle 2-3.

Woodham did themselves and their parents/supporters proud this week. The whole team’s efforts in the tackle/defence showed a dramatic improvement, and this was reflected in the scores against some strong opposition. Photos are on the website of the team with the shield and show how proud the team were of their achievements too.

Squad: Aaron, Ashley, Ben, Jacques, Jake, Joshua N, Oliver, Ross, Samuel, Toby.