by Chris McCarthy – under 11s/12s

Although our numbers were down due to illness the seven Streatham-Croydon players (Ryan, Erik, Dominique, Isaiah, Renelle, Sean and Garfield) more than held their own against the eight Southwark Tigers.

Streatham kicked off and quickly won back possession from the Tigers following some excellent mauling by Renelle, the ball was moved quickly to Isaiah on the wing who beat his opposite number to score in the corner.

After the restart Streatham quickly worked their way back into Tigers half and after a couple of minutes of pressure scored again this time Ryan finding a gap in the Tigers defence.

Streatham’s third try came a few minutes later scored by Garfield in the corner after beating several would be tacklers.This seemed to spur the Tigers on who then managed to win possession in their own half and after half a dozen good phases lead to a good try scored by one of their forwards just before half time.

After the break Tigers came back very strongly and scored again through some good forward play and some quick recycling of the ball out of the tackle.

That was about as close as it got as Dominique, Isaiah and Sean all scored for Streatham giving us an unassailable lead. Tigers did manage another score in the last few minutes despite some brave tackling by Erik and Dominique.

Streatham’s Man of the match was Ryan who was also Captain for the day.

by Lal Bahadur – under 7s

The teams were made up primarily of Streatham Croydon players, however we were joined by two Southwark Tigers (Jay and Thomas). The teams picked their own team names the all SCRFC team decided to be ‘New Zealand’, whilst the SCRFC & Tigers team settled on being the ‘Tigers’.

Both teams were raring to go after an excellent warm up session from Michael (many thanks Michael – we will certainly be using some of those routines), unfortunately we lost a small number of players , possibly due to the hot food and drinks being served. That aside, the game provided lots of entertainment and some confusion (on the referee’s part!).

Three tries were scored by ‘New Zealand’, despite a valiant effort from the ‘Tigers’ they were unable to score. The teams thoroughly enjoyed the game whilst making new friends along the way.

by Femi Oresanya

Southwark Tigers visited Streatham-Croydon for the first time on Sunday. Both U9/U10 teams trained together for one and half hours focussing on tackling and mauling skills, areas being development by both teams.

The friendly  game that took place was an exciting and close affair. With ten Streatham-Croydon players (Alia, Charlie B, Conor, Diego, Eamon, Ethan B, Lewis, Michael, Nathan and  Rimani) and eleven Tigers’ players, the coaches decided to play a 10-a- side game and Tigers would rotate their players.

Diego (captain for the match) drew the longest straw and opted to start. Conor started the game with a drop kick. A fast and furious start by both teams and some keen tackling meant that the early exchanges were even.

From a maul, Nathan broke through to score the first try. 5-0 to Streatham. Missed tackles in midfield allowed Tigers back into the game and they scored two quick tries to lead 10-5.  But Conor made an searing run to score and level the game 10-10  at half time.

The team talk from the coaches, Morris Roberts and Femi Oresanya asked the team to focus on tackling. In the second half, a number of players did their best to stop the Tigers from advancing with great tackling by Rimani, Alia, Ethan, Diego, Michael and co.

Eventually, a try from Eamon and a second from Conor took Streatham into a 20-10 lead. With the final play of the game, the Tigers scored to make the final score 20-15. Another win for the Streatham-Croydon U9/U10 but the tackling and alignment in attack needs to improve.

The ‘Star of the Week’ trophy was re-introduced for the first time this season. It was awarded to Rimani, a new member to the squad this season. It could have gone to anyone of four players but both coaches agreed his work rate during the training season, his defensive efforts  (making many tackles during the game) and his powerful running all contributed to the award.