Summary of Stroud Rugby Club U10’s Team 2007/2008 season

We ended the 06/07 season on a historic high note with Stroud A and B teams eliminating all the competition to play one another in the County Cup final at Dursley. How do you follow that? Well we did follow it and pretty impressively too with a bigger squad and more silverware.

We have incorporated six new players into the skills mix this season. This is extremely healthy for the squad but it has sometimes been a challenge to ensure everyone gets a game while allowing the latest recruits the match practice they need and at the same time beating the opposition. This balancing act is something our coaches achieved with a great deal of success on all fronts.

We started the year as champions of the Festival at arch rivals Dursley. A very wet and muddy season followed with a number of games cancelled or re-scheduled and various friendly matches organized between practice sessions.  During November we took two teams to the Cheltenham festival one of which went on to share the trophy with Banbury.

It was then time again for the Chippenham Festival and the County Cup. Despite a number of important players being un-available due to Easter holidays, we won one and came runners up in the other demonstrating the depth & strength in the squad.

In the Chippenham Festival, Stroud won all their pool games against Salisbury, Cleve, Rhiwbina & Chippenham B. The forwards did excellent work to retain possession and with some great passing and handling got the ball out to the backs for the try scorers.  The semi final saw us up against Chippenham A winning by 4 tries to nil and then Cleve for the second time winning 3 tries to nil this time to take the Cup.

The County Cup semi’s and final were at Stowe this season and in a tremendously hard fought semi final against Widden Old Boys, Stroud managed to fight back in the second half from a 1 try deficit to win 2 – 1. In the final, Stroud were up against St Mary’s and despite tremendous effort by all, St Mary’s came out on top winning 2 tries to nil. The medals for runners up and winners were presented by the Gloucester and England rugby player, Mike Tindall

Squad : Patrick Stuckey, Joe Little, Laurie Nicholls-Findley, Connor Elliot, Harry Lovell-Hewitt, Tom Jenkinson, Sam Hine, Finley Sharp, Sam Mendes, Ciaran Mclaughlin, Alex Seville, Sam Ashbee, Joel Carr, Finlay Carter, Casey Carter, Ben Daniels, Nathan Fagg, Connor Finch, Ed Golding, Regan Herbert, Henry Large, Jack Lightfoot, James Mead, Milo Risley-Prichard, Jacob Scrivens, Jack Shepherd & Bryce Dyer.

Brian Jenkinson
13th April 2008