Rebels come through a stiff test against tough Bowdon

Despite taking eleven players to Bowdon the Under 8's wanted to stay as a single team and therefore substitutions were a feature of our game and meant the team changed almost completely after each half of play, meaning everyone got quality game time but matches were disrupted a little and we never actually fielded our strongest six.

However, the coaches were delighted with the outcome, we faced four different Bowdon teams, lost only one half of one game effectively, whilst facing fresh teams in each match.

Game One started with a scare as we took our time to get into tagging mode. Bowdon took a number of early leads until Ben Lomax, Ruari Byrne and Ryan Edwards lifted their game and led a tagging charge that paid dividends as the game wore on and our try count increased.

In a remarkable show of consistency, five different players scored in the game, Josh Barnard, Sam Roberts, Harry Whittaker, Harrison Dillon joining Ben on the scoreboard to record a tough 6-6 draw.

In Game Two our form of recent weeks continued, aggressive pursuit of the opposition and accurate tagging produced copious turnover ball. Almost inevitably, our top poacher Ben Lomax pounced on a couple of turnovers and scored each time.

Jacob Sollory-Park showed great pace to run in two tries, one on either wing, whilst Sam Roberts added a try to his top tag tally in this game.

Try of the day though went to Harry Whittaker taking advantage of a fantastic change of direction by Harrison Dillon who wrong-footed the opposition with a pass out to Harry against the direction of travel that Harry finished smartly.

Ryan Edwards burst through a gap in the middle of the park to score but the biggest cheer of the day went to OLIVER HUNTER-ROBINSON who broke his try drought with a determined touchline run that just went on and on, the tries will surely flow for Oliver now he's on the scoreboard.

Final score, 9 - 4.

It would be easy to suggest that the big win in Game Two made us complacent in Game Three because in the first half were were battered 1-4. However, the screams of the coaches urging players to push harder in defence and not to settle so deep was the clue to the problem. The starting six had a few more of our less experienced players and faced with a tough opening assault from Bowdon their positional defence fell to bits a little, inviting Bowdon to run at them.

In the second period, Sam and Ben led a resurgence in tagging and tries from Harrison and Jacob added to Harry's first half effort but weren't enough to overturn the deficit and the Rebels recorded a somewhat surprising 3-5 loss.

Normal service was resumed in Game Four, Bowdon were hunted and pursued by excellent tagging and aggressive defence, 'super poacher' Ben Lomax helped himself to a massive five try tally, four of which were directly attributable to turnovers though they still needed long run-ins which Ben did superbly.

Ruari Byrne worked tirelessly in all the games and finally got his reward, chasing an opponent, forcing an error, pinching the ball and then running in the try from the halfway, great try Ruari!!

Josh Barnard showed blistering pace to score two tries, indeed, when Josh picked up a loose ball in his own half and set off, the Bowdon ref was heard to say, "he's gone"!

Coaches were delighted today, we saw nearly everyone score, we beat players and scored with PASSING, we chased the opposition back, and our support of the runners was excellent, with Sam Hanna, Sam Roberts and Jacob Sollory-Park worthy of special mention for following up.

Ben just squeezed ahead on tags this week but was a clear winner of the top scorer award after his great performance in Game Four.

Harrison Dillon was Top Passer, this was particularly pleasing because the passes Harrison made were really well chosen.

Coaches award went to Ruari Byrne who was a terrier all round the park showing great determination and commitment.