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04/11/09 Tigers U12’s Reach Their First Final of the Season
Macclesfield Floodlight Festival (Tournament Date: 31/10/09)
Tigers U12's narrowly lost in the final of the Bowl at the high calibre annual Macclesfield Floodlight festival. The tournament is attended by the top county sides from England & Wales and is a show piece for players who will go on to play the game professionally
Tigers opened their campaign with a loss to the eventual cup winners and hosts, Macclesfield, losing 0-5. Tigers were starved of ball for 95% of the games but defended their line in uncompromising fashion. Jack Pollard-Glaves was tenacious throughout aided by a wall of tough tackling backs who refused to buckle under the relentless pressure from Macclesfield.
In our second group game, Tigers played North Wales side, Mold. In what was a very tight game, Tigers were very unlucky to be edged out 0-1. The front row of Eddie Wain(who anchored the scrum superbly well), Tom Lloyd and Lewis Perkins ruled the underworld that is the front-row, backed up by John Hesketh and Daniel Gentles in the second-row. Michael Stacey drove forward on every occasion, putting the opposition on the back foot and allowing the backs the opportunity to lay siege to the Mold line.
Sam Smith and Euan Coutie came on in the second half at prop and second-row respectively and kept the pressure on Mold with strong scrumaging and driving in the mauls. Despite continuous pressure Tigers could not get the vital opening score and totally against the run of play, Mold sneaked a try from a quick penalty, only after breaking a brave tackle from Coutie on the Tigers line. The backs who had been resolute in the first game were again playing with the decisiveness and directness that make sides successful. The half-back pairing of Silas Talbot and Tom Mullaney broke the line numerous times and the tackling of centres Greg Beatson and Yared Heller gave the platform for the wings, Jacob Lee-Williams & James Gormley to torment the opposition. Nathan Hardy playing his first game at full-back was growing in confidence and fast becoming a rock at the back. Despite a late sniping run by Talbot which resulted in an unawarded try, Tigers ended up on the wrong side of a 0-1 defeat.
Having completed the group warm up games, Tigers now faced Derby (County Cup Champions, 2009) and Harrogate (Yorkshire Cup semi-finalists, 2009) in the knock out stages with 2 to progress from 3 teams. Both games were played on the floodlit first team pitch at Macclesfield.
First up was Harrogate. The opportunity of playing in front of a considerable crowd of supporters on a National League 2 ground under floodlights clearly had the desired effect on the Tigers. From the first whistle, Tigers tore into Harrogate, playing the game in the opposition’s half. The pack of Lewis Perkins, Tom Lloyd, Dominic S, John Hesketh, George Veall and Jack PG pressurised Harrogate, starving them of the ball. Again the half-backs of Silas Talbot and Tom Mullaney made metres at every opportunity and ensured that Tigers played with forward momentum. Tom Underwood and Greg Beatson tackled ferociously and Nathan Hardy ran the ball back from full-back in a manner that strangled the opposition in channels created by the direct running centre play of Yared Heller & Greg Beatson. The games finished a draw but now we were starting to see the Tigers playing at their best. It bodes well for the Yorkshire Cup next week having narrowly missed putting one of Yorkshire’s finest sides to the sword.
Going into the Derby game, we either had to win or draw to go through to the Bowl final against a side we had not previously beaten. From the start the pack laid the platform for the backs to run at the heart of the opposition. Silas Talbot and Tom Mullaney as a pairing were extremely effective all afternoon and it was on the brink of half-time that Tom Mullaney burst through the Derby defence to score Tigers’s first try of the day. Yared Heller continued to make his bulldozer runs up the first centre channel, assisted by his centre partner Greg Beatson and the wings, James Gormley and Jacob Lee-Williams.
In the second half the pack continued to ask the questions of the opposition. Dominic Simpkin (stole 2 opposition line outs at crucial times) and Geoge Veall dominated the line outs while John Hesketh ruled the mauls. Jack Pollard-Glaves carried for the hard metres time and time again. Replacements in the forwards in Cameron Mackenzie, Michael Stacey and Eddie Wain did not take a backward step and ensured we maintained our forward dominance.
Tom Mullaney controlled the game from fly-half with intelligent kicking and straight running at the heart of the derby defence. Derby, unable to breach the Tigers defensive line resorted to a kicking game but their kicks were returned with interest by Nathan Hardy to which Derby had no answer. With time ebbing away for a Derby fightback, Jacob Lee-Williams made a break on the right wing which brought our pack within striking distance of the Derby line. Excellent mauling by the front 6 was superbly finished off by George Veall to make it 2-0. Tigers then closed the game out to go into the Bowl final.
The Bowl final against Cheshire side Bowdon proved to be another hellish battle. It proved a game to far for the Tigers and although the whole squad defended bravely, we allowed Bowdon too much space to run at our defence and ended up losing 0-4.
This tournament was a fantastic achievement for Tigers U12's bearing in mind that some of the country’s elite player squads competed in this competition and we ended the tournament in the tier above the competition contested by the Yorkshire Champions and Derbyshire champions.
Well done to all and it shows what can be achieved by this squad with focus, application and determination.
Squad:
Tom Mullaney, Tom Underwood, Tom Lloyd, Nathan Hardy, George Veall, John Hesketh, Dominic Simpkin, Jack Pollard-Glaves, Cameron Mackenzie, Yared Heller, Silas Talbot, Michael Stacey, Gregory Beatson, Jacob Lee-Williams, James Gormley, Sam Smith, Lewis Perkins, Daniel Gentles, Euan Coutie & Eddie Wain
Report by: Paddy Mullaney
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