Derby RFC Under 12s Match Reports 2005/06

14th Apr'06: Gullivers Tournament

Gullivers report is on a separate page - click here

9th Apr'06: Derby Festival

Derby Festival report is on a separate page - click here

1st Apr'06 - David Crosbie Memorial Trophy

Now here’s a novel idea – rugby on a Saturday! Following on from last year’s under 12’s sterling work in winning the David Crosbie annual under 12 Memorial Trophy, it was the current under 12’s opportunity to have the Derby name on the trophy for the second year running.

Qualifying group Games

Derby Tigers 30 - 00 Derby Stags

Derby Stags 5 - 5 Ilkeston

Derby Tigers 10 - 00 Nottingham

Derby Stags 0 - ? Nottingham

Derby Tigers 30 - 00 Ilkeston

First up in the group stage (again!) a Tigers v Stags match which unlike the corresponding qualifying game at NLD, saw the tigers being a bit too strong for the stags with a strong backs performance and some pretty consistent and solid forward play. Tries came from Bobby Carr (2), Sam Martin (2), Jake Roome and Pete Neal who sneaked over, after a good forward drive. In the next game Stags came bouncing back with a vengeance against Ilkeston. The opening score came from a great (its beginning to be too much of a habit now!) forty yard run from Dominic Hancock to score in the corner. A last minute effort by Ashley Morrisey in the dying minutes to win the match was just averted by a try saving tackle from the Ilkeston full back just yards short of the line.

Matches with Nottingham have become fair old ding dong battles in the last few meetings and this one was no different with Tigers running out comfortable winners with tries from both Sam Martin and Jake Roome after some good back handling moves. Nottingham were next up against the Stags with the local rivals being a touch too strong for a somewhat nervy Stags. Some close to the line errors proved too be a bit too costly with Nottingham eventually running in three tries.

Tigers then took on Ilkeston in their last match of the qualifying stage. Tigers ran riot with some great individual tries and (perhaps more importantly considering the message we’ve been trying to get over in the last few weeks) some stupendous support play with options for moving the ball all over the park. Tries by Luke Frixou (2), Jake Roome, Ben Wilkinson & Sam Martin sealed a very convincing win, and an end to the qualifying stages

Plate Semi Final:

Derby Stags 00 - 10 Chesterfield

Cup Semi Final:

Derby Tigers 30 - 00 Mansfield

Cup Final:

Derby Tigers 5 - 0 Nottingham

Stags progressed through to the semi-final of the plate coming up against a very strong Chesterfield side who moved the ball about a bit and punished some errors that occurred where it hurts most – in the middle of the park. Chesterfield eventually scored a couple of tries which was enough to see them through to the final of the plate competition. Tigers were pitched up against Mansfield in the semi-final of the cup and were too strong for a side reeling under considerable pressure from the two main thrusts of solid forward domination and quick release and some excellent creative and inventive handling form the backs. Tries by Jake Roome (2), Ben Wilkinson (2), Luke Frixou and Sam Martin sealed the win and progression to the final of the cup.

The final of the cup saw a rematch of the Derby v Nottingham group game. By this time ground conditions were less than ideal (due in part to the rain / hail downpour earlier in the morning) but Tigers just had the edge for most of the game with Nottingham unable to get into any sort of stride. A first half push over try, eventually grounded by Sam Martin, and two disallowed tries was however a fair reflection on the dominance by the Tigers.

All in all another great day for both sides with everyone happy (under cover of the new gazebo!) despite the dreadful weather. On reflection the Stags played some good cohesive rugby but just hit a couple of strong teams who just had the edge over them. As for the Tigers they stepped up well to the challenges faced throughout the day. Although the tries all came from the backs, it was as ever, the forwards who set the tone for the results. Another big plus point (yet again -this is also becoming something of a habit!) the Tigers didn’t concede a try throughout the whole of the tournament. Coming back in the car Bobby and I were talking over the day as you do and I had to laugh when I asked him how well did he think the Tigers played (given the post-training “talk” the we had on Wednesday night) and his reply - champagne rugby!

Match Report & Photographs by Dougie Carr

19th Feb'06: Far Eastern Tour !!!

On a cold and misty February morning lads and families congregated for the annual minis and juniors (under 12’s and 9’s) tour. With Judge Milligan in attendance some 60 odd lads, dads and (for the first time) mums, headed for the wilds of Norfolk . Sheringham youth hostel was to be our base for the next few days with a big contingent from the U12’s of around 31 lads.

A short journey (the long way through though every market town in Leicestershire) saw us arriving in Stamford for a game en route to our base for the weekend. A strong side last year (they beat the U12’s in the final of the NLD tournament) Stamford were always on the back foot right from the start and before half time were 4 tries behind. Some great flowing rugby forged in no mean feat by some great forward play, saw the tigers squad run out easy winners of the first third. The second third of the match saw Stags put up a real good show against more or less the same side that faced tigers in the first third. Some short refreshments and fish and chips courtesy of Stamford were taken on board before we took on the long tip through to Norfolk .

We arrived at our Sheringham base and settled in for a nice tea and some fruit juice warming up for an evening of shove halfpenny. Saturday night ended up with a bit of sing song featuring the terpsichorean skills of Messrs Sam Roome and Doug Carr. Sunday morning saw a special assizes court session dealing with the previous days heinous crimes with Judge Milligan in attendance. Following the court session a few people seemed genuinely relived that their previous day’s indiscretions had been let off lightly. Sunday’s games took us to North Walsham but not before some spooky events resulted in a change of bus following one of the back windows caving in and ensuring that the bus was grounded in the car park. The journey to North Walsham from Sheringham was a bit long for a late Sunday morning but we arrived at the club just before lunch, ready for a couple of games. First up were Norwich who had made the relatively short journey over who were matched up against the Stags. Straight under the cosh from the start Stags put a great show of keeping Norwich out. In a hard fought match Stags more than held their own against a strong side who could move the ball about. With the try count one apiece at half time it looked like the Stags could pull a good win off but midway through the second half Norwich sneaked in for a good score to seal the match. Tigers were up next against an extremely strong North Walsham side with a good reputation for being competitive and playing some strong fluent rugby. Tigers defended well (this seems to be something of a key facet of their game these days, defending strongly on their own five yard line) grabbing a (what can only be described as fantastic) score just before half time from Harry Rudkin following some dogged but determined forward play. Tigers did well to keep out North Walsham until the last few minutes of the half when a rather dubious (and still incredibly confusing) decision to turn over the put in at a scrum to North Walsham ended in them going over for a equalising score. In the end the lads felt a bit aggrieved and slightly shaken but it didn’t really overshadow a good performance against a strong, fluent and very creative side.

After a few drinks in the clubhouse, a sing song and an impromptu lesson from Felix on the right (or was it the wrong) way to fall from a great height, it was time to move on back to Sheringham for the evening. Some brave souls made it to the beach for a bit of stroll before tea, whilst Gary headed for a few hours shuteye. The evening entertainment was split between watching a scary movie, chilling out in the hostel and braving the local institute bar.

Monday morning came with a bracing walk, a game of rugby and a couple of runs of British bulldog on the beach at Holcomb followed by some fish and chips, and a leisurely walk round Wells next the Sea. Just after lunch saw us congregating on the front for a 3 O’clock diddle before heading back to Derby .

And so concluded another successful tour. Thanks as ever go to Glenn, Richard and Steve for their part in organising the event and thanks to Roger Milligan for making it (as he always does) such an enjoyable event. Thanks also to all the dads, mums and lads from the under 9’s for making it an enjoyable event and especially to all the U12 dads and lads.

Tour Report and Photographs by Dougie Carr

29th Jan'06: NLD Qualifying Tournament at Ilkeston RFC

Results for matches:

Derby Tigers 5 Derby Stags 0

Derby Tigers 15 Ilkeston 0

Derby Tigers 20 Chesterfield 0

Derby Tigers 10 Bakewell 0

Derby Tigers 30 Matlock 0

Derby Stags 0 Ilkeston 10

Derby Stags 10 Chesterfield 0

Derby Stags 10 Matlock 0

Derby Stags 5 Bakewell 5

A cold Sunday morning in the last weekend of January saw the rearranged Derbyshire qualifying stages of the NLD tournament take place at Ilkeston RFC. Although ground conditions were ideal, a bitter wind blew across the Stoop to make conditions somewhat difficult. For the first time we entered two teams in this stage and with four teams qualifying from six, the goal was to see both teams through to the next stage. Camped out on a couple of pitches on an incline it would be a tough set of conditions for both squads coming up against some teams we hadn’t played for some time.

First match saw tigers pitched up against the Stags in what was a really enthralling game of cat and mouse with the Stags gaining something of the high ground by forcing the tigers on the back foot for most of the game. In the end a try by Will Shevlin separated the two teams. Tigers played Ilkeston next and stepped up a wholly different gear, winning convincingly and running in three tries from Luke Frixou, Jake Roome and Kyle Yeomans. Stags meanwhile got their first win under their belt beating Chesterfield with two tries coming from Nathan Jones and Jarrod Parkinson. Both the tigers and the stags followed up these wins with another couple of victories against Bakewell and Matlock respectively with Ben Wilkinson scoring two tries in the tigers match and Rhys Sherwood and Dominic Hancock running in tries for the stags. Stags then took on a strong Bakewell side needing a win to secure qualifying and started briskly running in a try in the first half from Dom Hancock. Unfortunately Bakewell ran in a score straight from the kick of return even before stags were allowed to reform and be ready!. In the end, stags should have won this game (quick restarts not being allowed in the continuum) but nevertheless their last game sealed a convincing set of performances

In the end Derby Tigers qualified as leaders of the group amassing 21 points from their Five games without conceding a try, Chesterfield took second position on 13 points, Derby Stags finishing in 3^rd place on 11 points and Bakewell finishing fourth on 11 points.

Highlights for the tournament for me, as far as the stags were concerned, were the continuity in forward play with players picking the ball up at the back of the breakdown and running with it to the next phase together with some great handling and movement good handling from the backs. In terms of the tigers they showed great poise, strength and conviction in picking themselves up from a hard start and playing some great flowing rugby from the backs backed up ably, as always, from some solid forward work down in the “engine room”. I tend not to single out individuals for praise in any of these write-ups, but on a day when they were so many great individual stories its worthwhile highlighting both Ashley Campbell and Nathan Jones, who up until 5 weeks ago, weren’t even playing rugby with us. Both of them are already established members of the stags squad and have shown fantastic potential already. All in all this was a great day with some fantastic personal and team / unit achievements across both squads.

Stags Squad: Jarrod PARKINSON; Haydn MORRIS; Nathan JONES; Ashley CAMPBELL; Liam MOORE; Dom HANCOCK; Dylon PROBERT; Josh SURGA; Peter NEAL; Callum HAY; Scott HAYWOOD; Alex EARLEY; Matt HAYNES; Rhys SHERWOOD; Ashley HAYES; James COZENS; Gwilyn WILLIAMS.

Tigers Squad: Harry RUDKIN; Will SHEVLIN; Luke WALTON; Josh WATTS; Brad HOPKINS; Kyle YEOMANS; Josh McCALLION; Ben WILKINSON; Sam MARTIN; Bobby CARR; Jake ROOME; Ben EDMUNDSON; George CAMBELL; Luke FRIXOU

Match Report by Dougie Carr & Photographs by Steve Haywood

16th Oct'05: Manchester Festival Report

Another early start to the day and the first of this years jaunts (by bus) to far flung distant places on the fixtures schedule. On a bright sunny morning the route through to Manchester Hawks, and the Manchester festival, (a first event for our age group) was a bit of winding one and if we had had to travel much longer the casualty list would have been much larger (including me!). Group matches saw us taking on three teams that we’ve never come up against before.

Derby 5 Leigh 0

Playing on the first team pitch, conditions were really ideal for our type of game. Having refereed a previous match involving Leigh it was obvious that they would probably represent the stiffest challenge of the group. Most of the pressure was put on by the tigers but no score was forthcoming until Jake Roome went over with a great run following on from some dogged play in midfield from the forwards in securing the ball.

Derby 35 Blackburn 0

The second match of the group stage piled on the same sort of pressure with score after score taking place. First half tries from Kyle Yeomans, Bobby Carr, Ben Wilkinson and Luke Frixou set the seal on the game by the end of the first half. Second half tries by Callum Hay and Bobby Carr and Ben Wilkinson (each for their second tries of the game), made for a very convincing win.

Derby 15 Chester 0

Chester had looked a strong side in their earlier matches but when they faced our guys, they looked less troublesome. Playing this game straight after the Blackburn game might have taken a bit of a toll on the squad but they stepped up to the mark well, producing another convincing win with tries coming from Sam Martin and Kyle Yeomans in the first half and Ben Wilkinson in the second. Yet again another strong all round performance from both units (forwards and backs) doing their thing extremely well.

QUARTER-FINAL: Derby 10 Ormskirk 0

Qualifying for the knock out stages as convincing group winners, a quarter final beckoned against Ormskirk, who again looked quite handy when I had a chance to watch them earlier in the day. I didn’t really get a chance to see this game (as I was refereeing another match), but by all accounts, tigers worked hard to secure the win with two tries coming from Ben Wilkinson.

SEMI-FINAL: Derby 0 Sheffield 0

In the semi-final match we were pitched up against old adversaries, Sheffield . Despite having most of the possession and territorial advantage (having been camped out on their half for most of the game), the game ended scoreless. It ended up being a game we felt like we should have won but weren’t able to capitalise on the upper hand that we had. There were a lot of tired lads at the end of this game and we didn’t know it at the time, but it was a forgone conclusion that Sheffield would qualify for the final working back on the try count-back rule.

Towards the last few matches, injuries as usual had taken its toll but nevertheless, there was a bit of a feeling that the semi was there to be taken but we just couldn’t get the score that would have taken us through. On the HUGE plus side, getting through FIVE games without conceding a try is more than just a fair performance in anybody’s language. Sheffield arrive for a triangular next Sunday and I’m pretty sure Tigers will want to make some amends for the outcome of the final match of our trip to Manchester .

SQUAD: Alex EARLEY; Bradley HOPKINS; Harry RUDKIN; Kyle YEOMANS; Lewis MADELEY; Luke WALTON; Josh WATTS; Bobby CARR; Luke FRIXOU; Scott HAYWOOD; Josh MCCALLION; Jake ROOME; Peter ROWAN; Ben WILKINSON; Callum HAY

Tournament Report by Dougie Carr

2nd Oct'05: Kesteven Festival Report

For the first game of the season the Tigers squad took a trip up to sunny Grantham hoping that the weather would be slightly better than last years trip (in the middle of January) in which the wind chilled you to the bone and the rain was relentless, and horizontal. Derby ’s qualifying group fro the festival consisted of Sleaford, Melton and Newark .

SQUAD: Alex EARLEY; Bradley HOPKINS; Harry RUDKIN; Iuan PALMER; Kyle YEOMANS; Lewis MADELEY; Luke WALTON; Josh WATTS; Bobby CARR; Luke FRIXOU; Scott HAYWOOD; Josh MCCALLION; Bobby CARR; Jake ROOME; Ben WILKINSON; Callum HAY, George CAMPBELL.

Derby 10 - 00 Melton

Although conditions were nowhere near as bad as last year, a difficult wind tended to make handling conditions quite tricky. The backs started off with some good movements, fed in part by some great forward play that saw them getting to the ball first at breakdowns giving out some useful quick ball. A tight first half saw no score but at the change around some good midfield pressure saw the backs being set up for a couple of tries (each by Luke Frixou) to seal a convincing victory.

Derby 20 - 00 Newark

The second match of the group stage continued on more or less from the convincing display against Melton with pressure exerted all over the park from the word go. Early in the first half a nice chip by Jake Roome led to a scrum some 20 yards out, which culminated in a try from Jake, in on the blindside. A runaway try from Ben Wilkinson from just inside halfway brought the half to an end in a convincing manner. The second half saw a couple of additional tries from some good handling by the backs with tries being run in by Bobby Carr and a second for Jake Roome after some good forward play to set Jake up.

Derby 10 - 10 Sleaford

The game against Sleaford started in a similar vein to the previous two matches. Some extensive and exerted pressure by the forwards. After some considerable drives to the line Harry Rudkin went over for a try from a penalty some 15 yards out. A second try followed quickly in what seemed to be turning out as something of a all too convincing win. At half time however, Sleaford came back with a vengeance piling on some significant pressure scoring a try just after the restart. The last few minutes saw Derby soaking up a bit of pressure. At the last play of the game Sleaford ran in a penalty from just on the half way line to score, and level the game, just before the final whistle. Derby seemed to be a bit sleepy and a bit complacent in the second half but nevertheless it acted as a bit of a wake up call.

FINAL: Derby 05 - 05 Nottingham

In qualifying as group winners we were pitched up against Nottingham , who looked to be a side in somewhat different in shape and overall quality than in recent years. It was hard but fair old game between the two sides with the tempo and advantage swaying from one side to the other over the course of the game. A first half try by Luke Frixou gave Derby the advantage but throughout the second half Nottingham had the upper hand. Derby managed to keep them at bay however until a try in the last minute evened things up. Extra time was played but neither side managed to break the deadlock. On reflection a draw was perhaps the fairest result but one couldn’t help thinking we’d let it slip from our grasp. By the end of the matches, injuries as usual had taken its toll but nevertheless, a festival win is a heck of a good start to anybody’s season. Roll on next weeks matches at West Bridgford and Sandal!

Tournament Report by Dougie Carr & Photographs by Ian Hopkins