Sub-8/10/12 Convívio
Read convívio reports and view images from the sub-10/12 games here.
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Click here to view Michael Hultén's images from the sub-12 games.
Click here to view Michael Hultén's images from the sub-10 games.
On Saturday we had a chance to put it to the test and boy did the sub 12s pass that test with flying colors! Both the A and the B teams won every single match they played.
The sub 12 A team started the day off with a 4-1 win against Sintrenses, a solid performance. They then followed that up with a 5-0 win over St Peter's with Luís Correia running riot with a couple of fine tries. There was also a great performance from our new hooker Vasco Mendes (from wing to hooker - I think you have found your new position Vasco!).
Our last game was against Santarém - a familiar foe. Twice this season we have played them, and twice they have beaten us. We were all determined it would not be a third time. The team were amazing! Not allowing Santarem to see any ball, and completely playing them off the park. Rafael Braga showed his prowess with two superb tries as we won 2-0.
There was great teamwork and commitment from the lads and girl on Saturday. It was very impressive to witness and long may it continue.
Well done to the B team as well on their wins. Our practices are paying off.
In our second game against Belenenses B, a team we have not played before this season, we started well again by putting pressure and it was great to see that everybody was making their tackles, something we have also be focussing on in training lately. Theo and Patrick were on fire and with a clear 4-1 win we were ready for our last game of the afternoon against CPA.
This game was really our best game of the afternoon. The entire team was working hard but CPA was defending their try line well. After much hard work close to their try line we scored our first try. With great passing from Afonso, who played again as scrum half, we managed to extend the score further and we won the game with 4-0.
Congratulations for all the players for a great afternoon of rugby and great team play. All of you were putting in to practice what we have been focussing on in training and we made clear progress. Very well done from all of you
…and a big thanks to all the parents who were there to support us.
We are hungry for the next game!
Sub-10A report by Nick Coutts
The Sub-10A’s were in a very tough group, with 3 games against the 3 strongest teams in the country
The pitch was absolutely tiny! This meant there was very little space for our “little flyers” to fully express themselves, cutting through spaces and runing rings around the opposition. Inevitably these matches were always going to have lots of contact and “crash-ball” as the pitch was so narrow that it was always congested
Our first match, against Santarem was fantastic! Typically, Santarem scored almost immediately, having seen and then taken advantage of a half-gap in our defensive line. But we gained our focus and turned things around, finishing as winners 4-3. We were brave in defence, winning the ball well at the rucks and creative in attack. We were simply better than Santarem in every aspect of the game, and thoroughly deserved the win!
Our 2nd and 3rd matches, against CDUL & Direito A were equally hard fought, but we were beaten in both. Having said that, there really was very little to separate us from our opposition and on any other day, things could easily have gone our way. We competed very well but we lost our intensity & focus for a couple of brief moments and against such strong teams as these, we were always going to be made to pay the price for such lapses of concentration
We’ve also got to eliminate a tendency to allow one or two “soft tackles” into what was generally a great afternoon of hard, relentless, solid tackling
Players of note:
Vasco “Pumba” is hard as nails! He stayed busy all afternoon, ball-carrying and tackling hard in the thick of the action, but suffered a huge smash to his cheek during the last match. We hope its nothing more than a bruise…
Sebastian Bowden and Isaac were 2 more forwards who were both on fire! Both with big tackle-counts and some effective ball-carrying
Congratulations to all players. This was the type of afternoon that shows everyone what you’re made of! These were 3 hard matches against 3 top level teams. You stepped up and showed that you’re as good as them all! Just awesome boys… Parabens!
Sub-10B Match Report by Simon Mount
The Sub-10B squad had a good afternoon at the Convívio Nacional in Lisbon on Saturday. Starting slowly, the team went three tries down very quickly against St. Peter's School, but fought back well to lose in the end by just a single score. Although most of the boys were making their tackles, a lack of organisation in defence meant that there were too many holes for the opposition to exploit and no pressure could be exerted. Vasco Répas scored a couple of fine individual tries to lend some respectability to the score-line.
Before the game against Badajoz/Elvas, the boys agreed that they would work harder for each other and in this game we saw the benefits of this, as a more coordinated defence, including some fine work by Vicente Costa, forced our opponents to make many errors. With more possession, some of our runners enjoyed themselves much more, with Giacomo Luraschi and Tiago Esaguy scoring excellent tries.
The final game against Belas saw the transformation completed, as our boys threw everything at a much bigger Belas side. Persistent aggression in both attack and defence robbed the team in yellow of their size advantage as we prevented them from scoring and ran in several excellent tries. Yeon Su Choi, Jonah Houltby and Thomas Lopes all enjoyed themselves in this game, and Titus Vieira also began to make a real contribution.
Well done boys for a really impressive performance - learning from mistakes and playing for each other!