Our second visit of the season to Stamford for a big Festival on Sunday. We were blessed with bright sunshine although the pitches were hard.

We entered the competition with 2 squads and reverted to our Reds and Greens. The squads were:

REDS
Sebastian Adams
Drew Jones
Miles Kane
Archie Leech
Noah Robertson
Ollie Trafford
Harry Wheeler

GREENS
Matthew Davies
Max Davies
Onri Domansky-Sais
Oliver McMahon
Archie Quilter
Luca Raine-Armijo
George Sutton
Samuel Williams

The competition involved 16 teams in 4 Pools with the Reds in Pool 2 and Greens in Pool 3.

As for the action, the REDS played as follows:

GAME 1: Corsairs REDS v Huntingdon Stags – RESULT: 2-6 LOSS
Captain – Harry

A tough first match was a bit of a baptism of fire for the lads against a very big, strong and powerful Huntingdon squad who, from the kick off put us under pressure with an aggressive defence and strong runners. We soon found ourselves 0-2 down before Harry pulled a try back. Huntingdon scored again to make it 1-3 at half time. They soon extended that lead before another try from Harry made it 2-4. Huntingdon were then able to call on some fresh players and their strength saw them pull away to finish 2-6. There was some ineffectual refereeing and some controversy about two of their tries, but in the end we were well beaten.

TRY SCORERS:
Harry x 2

GAME 2: Corsairs REDS v Spalding – RESULT: 3-6 LOSS
Captain – Seb

Second up for the Reds was another strong outfit in Spalding. We took an early lead through a try from Noah before conceding 3 in succession with some weak tagging to turn round at half time 1-3 down. Straight away we fell further behind before Archie L scored a long distance individual try to make it 2-4. Yet again we conceded a soft try before Noah scored his second: 3-5. Spalding then finished the scoring to make the final score 3-6.

TRY SCORERS:
Noah x 2
Archie L

GAME 3: Corsairs REDS v Market Harborough – RESULT: 7-5 WIN
Captain – Noah

More familiar opposition this time in MH, and the boys managed to pick themselves up for the final match to put in their best performance of the morning. Seb ran in the first try although MH quickly replied 1-1. Miles then scored followed by Seb’s 2nd to make it 3-1. We then traded tries with Harry scoring to make it 4-2. MH pulled another one back to take us into half time at 4-3. Straight after half time Seb completed his hat trick before we traded tries again with Harry making it 6-4. Archie made it 7-4 before MH scored with the final play to make it 7-5.

TRY SCORERS:
Seb x 3
Harry x 2
Miles
Archie L

So Corsairs REDS finished their morning. This was a tough series of matches where we came up against the eventual tournament winners in both the Cup & Shield Competitions in Huntingdon and Spalding. These clubs had strength in depth and were able to bring on fresh players when the need arose.

The boys can take huge credit in their efforts, particularly in view of the fact that we were a squad of only 7, so that all the boys played full matches in all 3 games, including back to back matches. So when the inevitable knocks came, the boys were big enough to pick themselves up and get on with it. For that and sticking to it, they can be very proud of themselves. Brilliant.

In the meantime the GREENS were enjoying their own action in Pool 3.

GAME 1: Corsairs GREENS v Kettering A – RESULT: 5-2 WIN
Captain: Oliver McMahon

First up for the Greens was a solid all round team performance against new opposition in Kettering. Some solid tagging by all the boys restricted Kettering to one try in each half. 2 tries each for George and ‘Birthday Boy’ Onri with another for Archie Q saw the lads finish with a good 5-2 win.

TRY SCORERS:
Onri x 2
George x 2
Archie Q

GAME 2: Corsairs GREENS v Deeping – RESULT: 4-5 LOSS
Captain: Onri

A much more tightly fought game this time. It was end to end stuff throughout the first half. They boys took the lead 3 times through tries for Archie Q, Matthew and Archie Q again, but each time Deeping equalised. The half ended at 3-3. The second half saw better defending from both sides but it was Deeping who took the lead before Archie Q completed his hat-trick to level the scores at 4-4. It was a shame then that with the last play of the game Deeping found a way through to score the winner at 4-5.

TRY SCORERS:
Archie Q x 3
Matthew

GAME 3: Corsairs GREENS v Stamford Eagles – RESULT: 5-3 WIN
Captain: Archie Q

The final Pool game and a win needed to progress to the Final stages, saw the boys raise their game again. Onri & George scored 2 quick tries to take a 2-0 lead. Stamford pulled one back before Ollie Mac scored to take us to half time at 3-1. Stamford scored straight away before Ollie added his second. Again Stamford came back before Matthew finished the scoring to make the final score 5-3.

TRY SCORERS:
Ollie Mac x 2
Matthew
George
Onri

The win ensured that the boys finished runners up in the Pool and so qualified for the Semi-Final of the Shield Competition.

GAME 4 SHIELD SEMI-FINAL: Corsairs GREENS v Kesteven – RESULT: 6-2 WIN
Captain: Sam

This was easily the best performance of the day. Despite falling behind to the first try of the game, the boys stormed back through 2 tries from Ollie and one from Sam. After half time, Ollie added two more to take his tally to 4 for the match, followed by one from Onri. So the boys had scored 6 unanswered tries before Kesteven scored a consolation to end the match 6-2.

TRY SCORERS:
Ollie Mac x 4
Onri
Sam

And with that, it was onto the Final….

GAME 5: SHIELD FINAL Corsairs GREENS v Spalding – RESULT: 4-6 LOSS
Captain: Matthew

The final saw the boys come up against the Spalding side that had defeated the REDS in the Pool 2 Group games, so we knew they were a strong side.

Indeed it was Spalding who took the early lead before Ollie continued his great morning to level the scores at 1-1. Spalding then scored twice more to finish the half 1-3. Onri scored straight away to make it 2-3 before we conceded again 2-4. Matthew brought to within a score 3-4 but we couldn’t prevent Spalding extending the lead once more 3-5. This time it was Archie Q who pulled us back into the game 4-5, but the pattern was repeated as Spalding scored the final try to take the win 4-6.

TRY SCORERS:
Ollie Mac
Onri
Matthew
Archie Q

So that was it, an absolutely brilliant Runners-up spot for the GREENS in the Shield Competition.

Overall: Played 5, Won 3, Lost 2. Tries for: 24 Tries against: 18

Once again, what a great performance from all the boys, playing through the Tournament with a squad of only 8. Well done guys!

There were some fantastic individual performances, notably Ollie McMahon who finished as top try scorer with 7 tries, while Archie & Onri scored 5 each. Matthew Davies was outstanding in defence finishing as top tagger with 23 tags including 7 in the Final alone. Special mention too for George with 20 tags, and Sam & Onri with 13 each. But it would be unfair to single out individuals too much; all the boys stood up when it counted in another genuine team performance.

They guys were able to collect their trophy and medals from the Tigers Mascot (who would be no match for Archie the Stag at Nottingham) before a rousing ‘Happy Birthday to You’ for Onri. Happy Birthday Bam.

Fantastically well played boys you can and should all be very proud of yourselves.

Thank you as ever to all of our fantastic supporters on the touchline and for making the long journey across to Stamford.

Happy Easter! See you at the Bay a week on Sunday.