On a glorious morning temperatures exceeding 22 degrees plus, we set up base camp Bridggy and thank goodness for the gazebo giving us valuable sun protection as the whole day on and off the pitch was going to be a scorcher !
Some teams unbelievably didn't come with anything more than their kit ,6 plus hours in sweltering heat so for all the "nice tent" comments ,it's a gazebo philistines!!! ;) it proved to be the most popular hang out for the lads and their mates from Moderns and Corsairs too .
I even invited our friends from Ashbourne to use it too .
The lads arrived looking up for it but sadly Eddie wasn't able to play feeling ill so straight away without even throwing / kicking a ball in anger we were a man down , what with Safwaan's hamstring injury that's kept him out playing for the last month we we're 2 7's stalwarts down
Not ideal then as Eddie is an awesome 9 and Thursdays 7's training with Gareth Kerr (thanks very much Mr K ) saw him comment on his ability to pass the egg effortlessly left or right hand long or short with ease ,Gareth pointing out this would be a good weapon in our arsenal to spread the ball wide and quick ,hey ho plan B .
So a nice warm up and away we went
Game 1 Southwell
Wow is all I can say Southwell are a great set up and as a 15 a side team we've never lost to them in our junior fixtures ,but their 7's play was a joy to behold we didn't know what had hit us so to speak loosing 24-7 ,in fact Southwell would go on to win every pool game then win the shield final too so a big well done from all at Wbrfc , in fact I was looking at the pools and I know 4 out of each 5 teams go through ,but from our pool us Ashbourne Southwell and Scunthorpe would all win or contest a final of some sorts so we were in a pretty tough group !
The 2nd game was Bridggy at their most glorious best ,woken up switched on which is a task in itself for 16 year old party people !!!
We hammered Newark B 45-10 playing some proper 7's rugger
Game 3 saw us play Ashbourne ,their big ball carrying lads played well but with only 1 sub and I thought we had it bad we pulled away winning the game 21-10 sadly though loosing another player to injury ,Orin the speedster with it looks like a broken nose !,a shame as this is Orin's stage to shine he's rapid ,The Bullet aside there's not a lot of things ,probably a gazelle that can catch him .
A lovely thing about Bridggy is the friendships togetherness etc and Keegan although not selected came along to cheer the lads on as did Brodders too glad to see Brodders is out his cast and is aiming to be fit for the big one on the 30th ,Keegan though after seeing Orin retire for the day said can I play ? I went to the clubhouse and cleared it with the officials and game on ,trouble is where do we find a kit to fit the big man ?
Thankfully Joe Shaw's mum had packed Joe a spare pair of shorts so the next job was to grease K up to slide him into them ;) a task in itself,! bright pink tour shorts yellow top K looked 'lovely' but thanks to him as the ever increasing heat saw the lads wilting slightly so more numbers were good
Game 4 vs our 'old foes' from north Lincs ,Scunthorpe after our intense game in the Nld pool stages earlier this season where things were a bit 'niggly' shall we say ? They wanted it badly especially as they haven't qualified for the Nld final after topping the group , they could barely say hello to us let alone be civil but that's their problem not ours, we set off well and we're winning 12-10 with the game virtually up but credit to scunny they're a really good team and they nipped in for a last play try to edge the game 17-12 ,fair play to them but revenge is a dish best served cold ................
So albeit loosing 2 games we had won the others and went through to the Plate semi final
Semi final vs Kesteven
Another brilliant advert for junior rugby played in the right sprit both supporters applauding each other's try's Ks edging the game the same as Scunthorpe in the last seconds 19-17,again though we were winnning 17-12 until the very last seconds gutted for the lads ,it was an end to end game nothing in it but for the 2nd time in two games a lack of concentration ?,tiredness? We had those games in the bag then let them slip ,oh well another game then this time the Bowl final, against yep you guessed it ,Scunthorpe ,time for the music to be turned off ,other teams to vacate the tent and the wise old owl to give a team talk of all team talks !
A few home truths ,what goes on in the gaz' stays in the gaz' and the lads flew out the gazebo
This time a different Bridggy took to the pitch ,switched on pumped up and ready and tbh scunny never really had a look in all game yes it did get a bit nervy when we were 20-14 up but brilliant defence and counter running saw us win the game a comfortable 27-14 to put the record straight against them #whenitmattersmostwedontdissapoint
Bridggy winning their 10th trophy since the start of the u9's proper sized pitch junior rugby and theirs still the small matter of the Nld shield final vs Pavs later this month too!
Well done to every player and supporter you all contributed to a memorable successful day
And thanks to Southwell rfc for a great day it was ran and reffed to a great standard
Yours, looking for a bigger trophy cabinet on eBay ,
Paul ,Raff,Jon & Wilson