Under 11's plans for place in finals foiled by Chester

Once upon a time..... there was a very busy pitch marshal who wasn't able to watch many of the Under 11's games as there were many other duties to be carried out such as locating match balls, referees, whistles and even teams! (Blackburn decided to train in the field behind the pitches and it took quite a while to track them down! Fortunately GPS systems were not required in the end).

Luckily, Prince Statto was on hand to record the details of the games and the antics of our heroic team. Here is his record of the tournament:

MATCH 1: ORMSKIRK

RESULT: 3-0 MANCHESTER
A game of scrums (eleven in 16 minutes). Manchester won all theirs and managed to win two defensive ones against a bigger pack.

TRIES
FIRST - Scored from a turn over at a defensive scrum near the Ormskirk try line.
SECOND - A three pass move, good handling and passing allowing Manchester player to sprint away before passing to the try scorer who rode a tackle to score.
THIRD - Great solo effort from Manchester player, beating all Ormskirk's players for pace.

MATCH 2: ELLESMERE PORT

RESULT: 7-0 MANCHESTER

TRIES
FIRST - Ball ripped by Manchester player who ran through several attempted tackles before passing to the on-rushing try scorer.
SECOND - Solo run from a Manchester penalty through several tackles.
THIRD - Great catch by a Manchester player from an Ellesmere Port penalty kick a run and pass saw the try scorer run over and score from a few yards out.
FOURTH - Solo run through several tackles straight from the kick off.
FIFTH - Another fine catch by a Manchester player from the Ellesmere Port re-start, a run and pass saw the try scorer run over the opposition line.
SIXTH - Manchester won a defensive scrum and from the resulting scrum half pass the Manchester player sold a great dummy for a fine solo try.
SEVENTH - A "ratted" try that's difficult to describe due to the amount of flailing bodies in my line of sight!

MATCH 3: SANDBACH

RESULT: 1-0 MANCHESTER
A very tight, physical game with Manchester giving away a number of scrums, but battling hard to win two out the five defensive ones and their own solo scrum!

TRIES
FIRST - The match was won by a great solo run by a Manchester player racing through three tackles.

MATCH 4: (SEMI) CHESTER

RESULT: 2-0 CHESTER

On the plus side we won all our scrums!!!

One pleasing point to raise is that we managed eleven tries with seven different try scorers.

So as you can see, although we didn't get to the final we worked hard and played some good rugby against some tough opposition. Chester went on to win the age group and were a tough team.

Our heroes were disappointed by the result but this has steeled their resolve, as they make the transition into a 12 player team.

Sadly, pitch marshal has had to hand back her "high vis" jacket. She enjoyed the power it conferred and was hoping to put it to good use in Castle Lewis.

Ah well....maybe next year!!!