Spring 2014

The magazine for Wimbledon RFC U11s

EAGLE SVIEW

Everything else you need to know

5 weeks to go

Looking back at Esher and Old Emanuel’s

PLUS

FESTIVAL REPORTS

MAGNIFICENT MINEHEAD

SMASHhits

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Steve VaughanManager

All the best

HELLO

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_____________Women in Wellies

Oh my BOD..!

The Legends are back 12/7/14!

End of Season Fun Day

Official: U11s have gone to the dogs

Hello lads,

Welcome to the first 2014 edition of Eagles View. As always it’s jam packed with some great bits and pieces and that’s all down to you guys, although not without some top quality tutoring from your coaches and of course our magazine editor who sticks it all together (not with jam luckily, thanks Ed!).

Thank goodness the rain eventually slowed up, so we could get back on track with our training (some of which has been pretty intense), a few friendlies (and not so friendly matches) with different clubs and of course, giving our all in the recent festivals. I don’t think we’ve seen such competitive rugby with no quarter given - or asked for - as you’ll see from the photos!

Mind you, the wash-out weather didn’t really stop us did it? And we wouldn’t expect any different from the mighty U11s! Setting off around the perimeter of the club grounds in an army bootcamp style session was one particularly memorable training session. I recall Matthew walking on the ice at one point but then finding out that the frozen puddle wasn’t as strong as he thought and turned out to be a bit deeper than expected too! But only missing one full training session has been a blinding effort as always. Well done! And a big thank you to the coaches too.

Whilst the weather may have been a bit wet, the 6 Nations was anything but. What a final day! England putting 50 points on the board in Rome, Wales smashing Scotland and Ireland winning the title in the very last match. Never mind Brian O’Driscoll retiring with a fairytale finish. What a way to warm up for the rugby world cup next year!!

As for the next few weeks, the Surrey Festivals with soon be upon us, with a bit of training in between before heading off to “Magnificent Minehead” for our third tour on 2 May.

So please read on guys, I hope you enjoy this edition of Eagle’s View.

Another date for your diaries is Sunday 11 May where there will fun and games and the traditional water fight, (you’ve been warned!).

We will also be running two tombola stalls (instead of a raffle) and would appreciate any donations of sweeties (primarily for the kids) and bottles (mostly for the grown ups). Una will start collecting donations so please bring what you can to training.

We had a great (if cold and wet) night at Wimbledon Stadium watching and betting on the dogs. Did you manage to pick a winner? Don’t worry if not, we’ll be doing it again so plenty of time to

Congratulations to Ireland and of course the legend that is Brian O’Driscoll, for winning the Six Nations Championship on a thrilling final weekend of matches. It went right to the wire, starting with a thumping English win in Rome meaning Ireland simply had to beat France.

A missed penalty and a forward pass from the French in the last few minutes meant that Ireland took the title and BOD (Brian O’Driscoll) retired a record breaking champion!

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NEWSEverything you need to know

and stuff...

Hopefully we’ve left winter behind as we head towards the Surrey’s and our Tour. Here’s a guide to who’s doing what, when and where till the end of season.

But as usual, keep an ear out at training for any changes...

FIXTURES

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Training at home

Esher away

Training at home

TBC

Esher A/Training at home

Cobham at home

Training at home

Richmond away

Training at home

Surrey A/Training at home

Surrey B/Training at home

Easter Holiday

Surrey C/Training at home

U11s Minehead Tour

End of Season Fun Day

After a brilliant festival last year (remember the sunshine?) Legends is back for another bumper day of rugby, family fun and of course another great band to dance away the evening! There will be teams fielded by Harlequins, Cardiff, Leicester, Bristol and Wasps (where our very own Mr Volley will strut his stuff) to name a few. Get the date in your diaries now...

5 WEEKS TO GO!MINEHEAD 2014

DangerWet pitch

Not only will you be playing down in Minehead when we go on tour but so too will our very own Wimbledon U11 ladies team.

We’ve arranged a tag rugby match on the Sunday after festival ends. It’s definately one not to be missed and we’ll all be there cheering them on.

There’ll be more detail in the tour guide coming soon...

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Wimbledon 0-0 Old Reigations

Esher 0-35 Wimbledon

Wimbledon 7-7 Cobham

Wimbledon 12-0 Old Ruts

On Sunday 2nd March the U11s took to the field for the Esher A festival. The conditions were windy, cold, dry and soggy under foot, taking a long stud. After the usual parking excitement, all members found our wonderfully unwindproofed gazebo where we set up camp, along side the somewhat narrow field of play.

The clash with the rearranged National Schools festival meant we were able blood some players new to the rigours of A team rugby. To a boy, they all stood tall and delivered a level of commitment that the coaching team suggested that even Stuart Lancaster would be proud of.

EsherUP

Continued over the page

SMASHThe recent Esher festival finally gave us the chance for some proper competitive rugby. And boy, that’s just what it was...This festival definately wasn’t for the faint hearted...

Thanks goes to Pricey (Hector’s dad) for the match report and Will’s Uncle for the pics.

The squad: Alex Hulton, Charlie Hancock, Daniel Burke, Dan Hillier, Felix, Freddie Gathercole, Gabriel, Harvey, Hector, Isaac, Jude, Magnus, Sam Vaughan, Sebastian, Titus and William Craigie

Esher A Festival report

The first opponents were Old Ruts. . . . .

The forwards dominated the set pieces from the kick off, recycling at speed to deliver quick ball to the backs who ran in two text book, training ground tries. Isaac scored first after several passages of play where no less than ten players had their hands on the ball. On the stroke of half time Will ran in a solo effort from within our own half, scoring with aplomb in the corner. There were no further scores in the 2nd half, though Dan converted both tries.

A superb team performance with a new team who tackled hard and fair, dominating possession throughout. A great start. Final score 12 – 0 win to Wimbledon.

Up next into battle v Old Reigatians. . . . .

A talented and well organised team who proved worthy appointments of our boys, who matched them tackle for tackle. We spun the ball down the line on numerous occasions, though the narrowness of the pitch resulted in a 0-0 stalemate, which was a fair result.

Our third opponents were our Hosts, Esher. One might have assumed that the physicality of the earlier matches might have sucked the life blood from our team of hardy warriors.

6 7

EsherUPSMASH Training

doesn’t get tougher than this!

It is rare that words fail me! What a fantastic day for our lads, who to a boy gave everything. Disappointed they may have been to end the day unbeaten, yet not finalists;you wouldn’t have know it 10 minutes after the game. These are a great group of boys who go from strength to strength with a attitude to the game that says ‘hey winning is great – but you know what, Rugby is more than just winning’!

Huge thanks to the coaching team and to Esher for laying on another excellent day of Rugby.

How wrong we were! What followed was 20 minutes of total domination of a good Esher team.

For the forwards it was something of a Nivarna moment, not least when felix ripped the ball off his opposite man and handed it to Magnus who barged his way over the line with 3 Esher boys desperately trying to pull him down. Next try was scored by Freddie, who on this Sunday found his rugby vocation! The boys turned around at half-time leading 14-0.

During the 2nd half, there was no stopping the boys in purple. The next try came straight from the kick off. The forwards mauled their way to the 5 metre line when Gabriel stormed over for the score. 1 minute later we were awarded a penalty 20 metres out. Dan popped the ball to Hector who once at full pelt wasn’t going to be stopped. Then came the move of the day, a superb back miss move, with Titus side stepping like the glory days of Phil Bennett to score under the posts. 35-0. Some result! Dan and Will shared the kicking duties and had a 100% record.

Now we come to the hardest bit!! Our final game was against our old adversaries, Cobham.

Whilst there is some history between our two teams, we entered the match as underdogs, but you wouldn’t have known it as our boys am’, said the ref. Another 30 seconds later, a score

was ‘given’ in the corner. 7 – 7. Were we robbed? Possibly. Did we deserve to win?

Absolutely. Is the ref always right? YES!

We’ve had some great sessions this year, hosting a number of clubs including Barnes, Warriors, Teddington and Cobham as well as recently visiting Richmond for some cracking games. All the lads are continually proving themselves very capable players.

But our training sessions are really important. They’re not only a great way to test our skills and drills against each other as well as different teams but also to build up your strength and fitness - as you found out...

While some of the boys were at the Esher Festival, Paul Volley took the home training session. He had this to say:

“The development boys had a great session, running through drills then into some physical tackling practice finishing with games against the U10’s!

Tries were abundant with Sachin causing mayhem around the breakdown and Charlie Arthur making three big hits in succession. Corbett Snr was unable to hide his delight as Ben marshalled his back line for yet another offensive move, resulting in the flying Flynn to score in the corner! All-in-all the boys walked off the pitch with big smiles on their faces and a performance to be proud of.”

 

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OldEmanuel’s

 

It was a beautiful spring morning and at the Old Emanuel Lions ground and there were signs of what the future holds. The C’s went up against strong opposition and accounted for themselves well in some hard fought matches.

David Hawkins brings us up to speed with the day’s events...

To progress to the Shield final against the

old foe Cobham and to hold them off for

so long until late in the second half shows

exactly how this group of players have

grown into a team. The fact that they

visibly improved during the course of this

tournament demonstrates their potential.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The forwards more than held their own forcing errors from the opposition and stealing the ball a number of times.

The backs put in some big tackles to break down attacks and made a few breaks of their own. This was an intense and exciting match however in the end Cobham managed to score twice late in the second half as Wimbledon tired.

Overall everyone left happy after a hard but enjoyable morning.

The Squad: Charles, Ben, Ryan, Freddie, Edward G, Samuel, Edward H, Flynn, Matthew, Conor, Jeremy, Clemont, Jude, Sachin, Joesph

It has been a while waiting for the first festival victory this season but against Old Emanuel’s that is exactly what happened.

Wimbledon had an unlucky draw and had to play the first two matches back to back.

First up was the first Old Emanuel’s ‘A’ team (The OE’s A’s had recently defeated the likes of Reeds at the Esher A’s festival a fortnight ago). As expected they proved too strong for us and although we had the odd break the result was only going one way: OE’s scored twice in each half.

Next was Weybridge Vandals. Tired from their previous match Wimbledon put in a great performance with some improved rucking and scrummaging but eventually Weybridge overcame and won the match by 4 tries.

There was then a long break before the next game which was against the OE’s B’s. Both forwards and backs played well before Sachin, a contender for Wimbledon’s player of the tournament, scored the decisive try to secure a place in the Shield final after a great run down the right.

The Shield final was against the same Cobham team who had given us a torrid time at WRFC a week before.

This time though they found a Wimbledon side with renewed resilience, determination and confidence.

Festival

MINEHEAD 2014

5 WEEKS TO GO!It’s now only 5 weeks until the Mighty Under 11’s head down the M4 to Minehead and another Bank Holiday weekend of rugby.

Check in is on Friday (with an early night for the players, of course!) then matches across Saturday and Sunday, with Monday free – if the weather is fine – to enjoy the beach before heading home.

On Saturday night we have planned an even-ing at Minehead Barbarians Rugby Club, where we’ve hired the clubhouse for our exclusive use. There’ll be food and drink a plenty, with coach transfers to and from Butlins to the club (that’s for everyone, not just the coaches! Ed.).

There’ll be more details in the Official Tour Guide due out at the end of April. Keep an ear out for more tour updates at training.

Minehead is where Exmoor meets the sea. Sitting on the very edge of the National Park, Minehead offers traditional seaside fun, with its promenade and long, sandy beach.

The South West Coast Path begins on the quayside in Minehead and winds its way around the coastline for hundreds of miles until it gets to Poole in Dorset.

North Hill, where Exmoor National Park begins, dominates the town and its green slopes can be seen for miles around. It’s just a short walk from the centre of town, so even without venturing far you can enjoy a taste of the countryside and even spot a red deer and the famous Exmoor ponies.

After the Second World War, a meeting was held in The Queens Arms in Minehead where it was decided to reform the Club under the title of the Minehead Barbarians.

The name Barbarians was added to avoid any responsibility for the possible debts of the former Minehead Club. At that meeting a unanimous decision was made to dispense with the monies left over from the old club’s accounts by buying a round of drinks for all those present.

More details soon...

For those of you who are not playing or watching the rugby there are plenty of on-site activities you can try.

If that’s you (or your brothers and sisters) then they do cost a little extra but you can purchase some activity passes before you arrive to save you money.

If you head on over to the Butlin’s website, you can find loads of information about the resort, what’s on and all the important things to know about where you’re staying. There’s also a handy little book to download, which contains some top tips and ways to get the most out of your time at Butlin’s.

If you’re already thinking of the drive down, then here’s a quick look at how to get there.

Head south on the M5, follow the signposts for junction 23, Bridgwater. Take the A38, then the A39 to Minehead. Head for the beach, you can’t miss it!

pLAN your STAY

Getting THEre

BET YOU

DIDN’T

KNOW...

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THANKS TO OUR TOUR

SPONSORS Marvellous Minehead

Women in Wellies

FRAMEDYou’ve been

Ha!Ha!

The lighter side of life on and off the training ground

Ha!

Ha!

Red Nose Day came early for Will

The Little and large show with Luke Wallace and friends

Someone makes his TV debut on The Munch Box. HP sauce anyone?

Here’s the England Captain asking Elliot for a photo

Go with your head or your heart?

Was it another wardrobe malfunction?Another coach party

The Ref is always right... even if he’s not quite sure himself.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie... Two rugby greats, Michael Lynagh and

James O’Connor, watched the boys when we travelled to Richmond