Under 8s at West Hartlepool Match Report

To reward the break from fixtures the rain came back, but 12 brave unders 8s travelled up to West Hartlepool to play for honours after the Mowden 3rds squad were narrowly beaten by West in the County Cup final less than 24 hours ago.

Playing six aside, one of the side effects of a large squad meant that the main challenge was keeping everyone warm, although it gave us a clear advantage in terms of fresh legs, which showed clearly at times.

We played two games, rotating our squad in full at half time in each, first game we ran in victors by 6 tries to nil, the second match was less in it as the weather took it's toll, but still emerging victorious by 9 tries to 4. What was most encouraging though was not the scoring, but the passing and support play, very few lose balls, off side lines being respected and choices of team mates to pass to as players were tagged, we have a very good squad to be proud of and it showed out today.

Player of the day was one of our new recruits this year, Oliver Stewart, who's work rate in tagging and choice to pass to a team mate in a guaranteed try scoring position epitomised the team play we've been trying to encourage this year