Clifton Take Land Rover Cup Title

Coaches, players and parents travelled up to Dean Close School, Cheltenham for a 9:20am start at the Gloucester Rugby – The Land Rover Cup.

There were 16 sides in the Under 11 tournament, 4 pools of 4 teams.

Early bird registration was taken care of by Ian and Clifton were drawn with Hucclecote, Cinderford and Tewkesbury.

The winner of the each pool would go onto the semi-final and then the winners of that, would proceed to the final.

We were taken through our warm up with bacon and sausage Croissant clutching Jinx, Australian Dave the Geordie, Ian and Anthony.

It was time to see the results of the efforts of our coaches and the additional experience called in from Ed Pearce, Jason Packer (The Stone Man) and Dave Hilton (Hilts) and at our 'mid-week nights under the lights'.

THE RESULTS

Pool 1
Hucclecote 0
Clifton 7

1st Half: Sammi Hamid, Millan Rai, Sammi Hamid, Ben Bonwitt–Marsh
2nd Half: Sammi Hamid, Millan Rai, Theo Beavon

Pool 2
Cinderford 0
Clifton 2

1st Half: Ben Bonwitt–Marsh
2nd Half: Sammi Hamid

Pool 3
Tewkesbury 0
Clifton 2

1st Half: Ben Bonwitt–Marsh
2nd Half: Jake Davies

Land Rover Cup Semi-final
Cheltenham 0
Clifton 2

1st Half: Sammi Hamid
2nd Half: Matthew Hogg

Land Rover Cup Final
Ross-on-Wye 0
Clifton 4

Jake Davies, Ben Bonwitt–Marsh, Sammi Hamid, Nicholas Powell

THE BACKS

Organised.
The backs were primed and ready from the start of the first game until the last whistle at the end of the final with Ross-on-Wye.

Running through their sequences.
The false runs that Sammi Hamid and Millan Rai made with Matthew Hogg overlapping worked well, and were rotated regularly so that no team learnt our systems to be able to defend against them. If we ever lost any ground, one of our backs would cut through, dummy, skip, swerve, drop a shoulder or all together the backs would do what they do best with great passes out by Theo Beavon and Jake Davies and get steep and spread the ball quickly out through the line.

Kicking for position.
Jake Davies kicked with precision throughout the day, breaking up the play and directing the game to all corners of the pitches that Clifton played on.

Running straight and through.
Ollie Brock, Sammi Hamid, Ben Paine and George Hemming all stretched their legs to great effect throughout the whole day, straight up the middle and up the sides of the pitch. Mark Greenwood and Nicholas Powell also gained us valuable yards up the pitch towards the try line.

THE FORWARDS

Line outs.
The line outs worked really well and as planned with the now infamous ‘Poppy’ shriek ringing out around the pitches at Dean Close, winning our line outs and stealing the oppositions like thieves in the night.

Scrummaging.
We were 50:50 on our scrummaging some strong pushes when it counted in the semi-final and final and some work needed in the games earlier in the day, maybe too much dried mud on the studs of the boots in our pack? When we did go momentarily backwards, Theo Beavon cleaned the ball out of the scrum and away to the backs surgically and with precision.

Rucks and Mauls.
The rucking and mauling was impressive, the boys got in, got over, got up and got over to the next. Work rates from all were excellent. Poppy looked at times like a boy possessed in his efforts to clear people out, with Ben Paine in his renowned 'Snow Plough position shovelling the opposition to the side. Zac McGoldrick, James Lemon, Ben Bonwitt-Marsh and Andre Grady were masterful in the mopping up that was required to clear the ball out and at times opposition players – they now are starting to get to grips with the term ‘afters’.

THE TEAM

Tries.
Sammi Hamid with 6 tries, Ben Bonwitt-Marsh with 4 tries, Millan Rai and Jake Davies with 2 tries each all deserve special mention – but an impressive sight was watching Sammi Hamid pass to a team mate when he possibly could have scored himself, but did the unselfish thing and made sure of the try by passing. More pleasing than all the individual tries was that they came from all areas of play and from areas of the team, both backs and forward.

Tackling.
The tackling was robust and definite across the team but especially solid from the usual suspects, Ben Paine, Ben Bonwitt-Marsh, Ollie Brock and Sammi Hamid. All opposition were given little chance on the ball before being introduced to a Clifton tackle. Ben Paine was like a Jack Russell in the way he would not let go of the oppositions legs in a tackle. Brilliant.

Defence.
The scores speak for themselves, to win the Cup is brilliant. To not concede a try in winning the cup is exceptional.

Injuries.
Testament to the teams extra training, fitness and ability we came away unscathed with injury and in an enviable position to pick from a full squad for Sunday’s Gloucestershire Cup.

OTHER

Opposition
All of the teams we faced were high calibre teams and gave a very good representation of themselves, Tewkesbury, Cheltenham and Ross-on-Wye all put up strong opposition, and especially Cheltenham who were unbeaten until Sunday. No one gave up against us and this made for a better performance from us, as we play at our best when the challenge is greatest.

On the sidelines.
What was enjoyable about this tournament was the Ex Gloucester Rugby players, the opposition coaches and parents who had complimentary comments about 'how well drilled they thought the boys were' and 'how enjoyable it was and a pleasure to watch them play' and 'how if their team are to improve how they would like to ensure playing us at least twice in a season’ – rather than moaning that they had been beat, they were recognising the hard work that the coaches and Ed/Jason/Dave had obviously put in and more importantly that we had listened to and applied in our games.

There are many names given credit in this report but the team on Sunday and the entire Clifton squad that has contributed this season and seasons before should take shared credit for the Cup win, and boys that were not their due to other commitments were certainly missed because we would have like you to have shared the days success with us.

Everyone turned up without exception on Sunday and everyone contributed to bringing the Land Rover Cup back to the Clifton Clubhouse. I don't think we realise it yet –but we should all be very proud of what we achieved.

Presentation
Ex Gloucester Rugby forwards coach Andrew Stanley and Ex Gloucester Rugby Players Adam Eustace and Terry Fanolua presented Sammi Hamid with 'The Spirit of Rugby Award' and 'Player of the Under 11’s Tournament', Aviva Premiership Rugby/Land Rover tackle wedges and tackle bag for the club and 24 tickets to Gloucester Rugby for the team and coaches.

The team collected The Land Rover Cup, Winners medals, and a further 24 tickets to Gloucester Rugby for the team and coaches.

Ben Bonwitt-Marsh was interviewed by the press, please look out for the article in Women’s Weekly entitled “How I showed Clifton how to win and taught Jinx all he knows about Rugby”.

Special thanks.
To Ed Pearce, Jason Packer (The Stone Man) and Dave Hilton (Hilts) for giving up their valuable time and for making Sunday training and Wednesday nights ‘intense’ vocal and as much fun for the boys and watching parents alike.

To get right this Sunday
In the 2nd pool game we were rushing things unnecessarily , we don’t need to – take a breath and play our rugby at our speed.
Find your voices like ‘Poppy’ has, we can and we should be much more vocal in all areas of the team, let the opposition know that you are there, it is intimidating.

The Gloucestershire Cup
Praise where praise is due, we did very well on Sunday and it demands recognition, going to Twickenham will be a well deserved day out.

But, it was just a starter and the main course is on Sunday at Dursley, so turn up hungry.

Monty Rogers
Clifton RFC Man of the Tournament

Winners Won.