Vale of Lune Tournament U9's

Vale of Lune Tournament
What a fantastic day, we all arrived at the Vale of Lune Rugby Club not knowing what to expect, what we got was a cold but dry start to the day with plenty of mud thrown in. Thankfully we had plenty of parents help to put up a tent/marquee which unfortunately had pieces missing, so with lots of improvisation and DIY skills (well lots of insulation tape !! – cheers Lofty) we had our marquee built, which compared to the Sale Sharks shelter looked liked something from a Brazilian shanty town ! Back to the Rugby, we were drawn in a group with four other teams, Sedgley, Lymm, Kirkby Lonsdale & Mold. We got the players warmed up and ready for the first game which came all too soon against our local neighbours Sedgley, this was going to be a tough start and what with the matches being only 12 minutes long there was no time for any early mistakes.
Bury 20 – 5 Sedgley Having warned the players that we needed to get out of the starting blocks quickly and having lost convincingly to Sedgely only a few weeks earlier, the players responded really well and totally dominated the majority of the game, with some excellent defending giving Sedgley no chances of scoring until late in the second-half. Two tries for Mikey, one after Will had crossed the line after a great run and not realising he was over the line Mikey ripped the ball brilliantly from a Sedgley player and touch the ball down, his second try was a great storm busting run. The third try was from Will and the fourth after a great run & try from Callum.
Bury 0 – 40 Lymm This was a game that looked like men against boys, all the Lymm players seemed to be much tall than our team as a whole, but they were also all fast, well organised, never missed a tackle and played fantastic rugby in what was terribly muddy conditions. Bury never stopped trying but were well beaten in the end by a very good Lymm side.
Lymm were the eventual joint winners of the tournament with Waterloo, they did not conceed a try during the whole tournament, I think this puts our results in perspective !!!
Bury 10 – 5 Kirby Lonsdale After the Lymm match a few of the players seemed to be a little demoralised and the cold had started to get to them, so we tried to pick them, although unsure what standard of team Kirby Lonsdale would turn out to be we were determined to put the previous game behind us. Under-foot conditions started to deteriorate with the thick mud just sticking to everything. Kirby dominated the early exchanges, but with Bury starting to warm – up they came into the came well with some strong and determined runs from Zack in particular Bury started to show that they are made of the right stuff. A great try from Oscar and a fantastic powerful run & try from Mark.
Bury 15 – 5 Mold In our final match we still had an outside chance of qualifying for the latter stages of the competition, if we could win this game and put pressure on Lymm making them having to win their last game. This was a well played but tough encounter against a good Welsh side that had recently beat Lymm in a friendly game a few weeks ago. As always the Bury boys rose to the occasion with the best rucking yet and as the sun came out we started to play some good flowing rugby resulting in a fantastic try from Hayden and two super tries for Oscar.
With Lymm winning all their matches Bury finished second in the group which was no mean feat, I just have to say that every single player contributed today and they all represented Bury RUFC with there heads held high and showed great sportsmanship and determination throughout the day. A big thank you to all the parents for their very vocal support which helped spur the players on when the going got tough.

Players Tournament Profile:

Adam: Fantastic performance really starting to get stuck in and looking for the ball.

Andrew: New starter with bags of potential, fabulous tackling and always looking to get involved.

Ben: Looking to get more of the ball, some excellent all-round play, a super performance.

Bradley: Another great effort getting more confidence with each game.

Callum: Kept up his usually high consistent performances with some great runs and tackles.

Dominic: Tackled his heart out for the team, a great team player.

Hayden: Fabulous try and a fantastic try-saving tackle, excellent wing performance.

Jake: Really performed to a high level, lots of involvement in the matches.

Joe: Best performances yet, showing more confidence in his ability, great effort.

Mark: Cracking tackles, always looking for the ball and always one of the first in he rucks.

Mikey: Strong running, great tries and excellent mauling, great all-round performance.

Oscar: Fantastic individual & team player, great tackling and fantastic tries.

Will: Tough tackling and strong running, excellent effort.

Zack: Back to and beyond his best today, a quiet first match but then really started to make a difference,
won the Bury U9’s Player of the Tournament for his strong running, rucking and a great all-round effort.

Well Done boys, you have made the coaches and parents very proud !!