Brighton U15 Bournemouth Tour

Sept 18^th 19^th 2004-11-28

We left Waterhall at 7:45 in the morning with a party of 29 and despite the early start we were looking forward to the day ahead.  We arrived at Ellington /Ringwood rugby club (which is in Ringwood) after a journey which took about 1hour 45 minutes.  Well almost everybody made it ….. except for the coach, who had the kit and two players with him.  The lads took a look around the club house and found that there were horses running around the ground, you would not see that at Waterhall.  There was still no sign of the coach (or the kit and the two players) so the lads got changed and Steve Booth, with a little help from the dads, took the lads for their pre-match warm up; then you guessed it! the coach and kit and two players turned up.  Excuses were made like “if you miss that slip road you have to go mile up the motorway to turn round” who had the map?  With the two teams now warmed up it was now time to enjoy the weekend.  What a great game, there is lots to say but as you know you have to be there.  It was great to see and what a change it was to see the lads play.  There was lots of good things, lots of great tackles, rucking, mauling and support play; was this the same team as last year? It was a good start by Brighton with some strong running by James who put the ball under the posts for the first try. Steve kicked the conversion then it was the turn of the scrum half Jake to score a try, once again Steve kicked the conversion and made the score 14-0.  Then some strong play by Sammi and he scored the third try.  The kick from Steve was just wide so the score at half time was 19-0.  The half-time oranges/bananas were sponsored by C.H Mears & sons.

The lads were ready to go again but Ringwood made a second half of the game.  One mistake by Brighton led to a penalty conversion for Ringwood  with the score now 19-3 the lads just dug in and in the end Brighton scored two more tries by Sammi to make the
final score Brighton 29 Ringwood 3.

So we had a drink and some food before we set of to our Travelodge in Ringwood.  The dads and the lads set off to town to find a water park.  The lads spent 2 hours in there and some went for a beer or two so the evening consisted of a meal with 13 parents  and 16 lads.  The food was good we also had our own entertainment (who needs Billy Connelly when we have Frank Carson - he made the dads and mums(2) laugh so much it was a good evening all-round.  We got to bed very late so Sunday was going to be hard with a few sore heads so we had a good breakfast in the morning and then off to Bournemouth for game two.

This was always going to be hard game because of the night before and it showed.  The lads had a wake up call early in the game and let in  3 tries.  The lads came back great guns are they awake just Tom B. scored a try to make the half time score 5-17 but with only 15 lads they tired in the second half and lost the game 5-29 nevertheless overall the weekend was a great team bonding weekend.

We from Brighton rugby club would like to thank Ellington /Ringwood rugby club for their friendliness and good sportsmanship and we hope to see you soon at Brighton rugby club.

We would also like to say thank-you Bournemouth rugby club for your friendliness and good sportsmanship.

 I (Ian) would like to thank everybody for making this weekend a good one.

                                 10s tournament in Effingham

After a good weekend this was another bonding session.  The lads seemed to be up for the tournament and Brighton got off to a good start  by beating Effingham by good movement and intelligent use of the ball.  Then they beat Bromley(b) to qualify for the quarter-final which was against Worthing.  However there was a lot of hanging around so they went home.  After that we decided to play Crawley who had got knocked-out in their group stages but we came unstuck against them.  So with the lads down in the dumps we got the news that we were to play in the plate final  against Effingham.  It was a tight game but we lost with the last kick of the game but like the lads said we normally we go home early! so a long but successful day .                                                                                                                             After the two weekends a few thank-yous one to Melissa for organizing the games and the hotel and another to Mark the coach for some great singing and one to Steve for helping Mark coach the team. I (Ian) would like to say a big thank-you to Dave he was ill but he drove me and my son on tour so thanks Dave.

Next stop Worthing in the league at home so looking forward to this game.

Brighton Vs Worthing

A  warm welcome to Brighton first teamer Dan who has offered to help Mark training the team.  The team is now looking in great shape. Well the game is here and the lads look up for it as they trained hard in the warm up.   Unfortunately all the hard work was gone in five seconds as Worthing won the toss and kicked-off.  The ball was in the air one minute and the next time saw it, it was being put down for a try to Worthing.  Can the lads bounce back? Well they showed lots of spirit but Worthing had too much in their locker they were too strong in the first half but Brighton got stronger towards the end of that half and scored a well worked try and conversion.  The half time score was Brighton 7 Worthing 29.

The second half saw Brighton start well with a lot of hard work in the scrum was paying off as  Brighton ran in two tries but Worthing also scored two tries and a conversion to make the final score Brighton 17 Worthing 41.

Tries scorers Sammi 5

                          Jamie   5

                          Tom C. 5

Conversion   Steve       2  

 Some good things came out of this game such as the way you played as a team and the way you rallied in the second half so keep up the good work in training it does pay off if you listen.

Brighton Vs Twickenham

Next up was a home game against Twickenham, and once again the lads had a slow start which makes the game a lot harder to play because you are always chasing the game as the half-time score tells you Brighton 5 Twickenham 29.

The second –half was much better because they had nothing to lose except their pride and so they played with fire in their bellies.  Consequently they won the second half 7-5 however as I said earlier they had already lost the game in the first half but they showed character to bounce back so the final-score was

Brighton 12 Twickenham 29.

Try scorers    Tom B. 5

Ewan    5

Conversion    steve     2.

Brighton Vs Horsham

The second league game was against  Horsham away;  this was a must win game  and Brighton started very well  but Horsham held firm to take a 10-0 half time. When the second half got under way the lads were still in break mode as the harder the lads played Horsham just broke away to put  the game out of reach.  It was frustrating to watch the lads play well and get nothing from the game

The final score was Horsham 32 Brighton 5.

Try scorer Tom C. 5.  

 I would like to thank the parent for their support in getting the lads to the games but we do need to see more parents at home games it will lift the lads with more support on the touch line.

Brighton Vs Heathfield

The next game was away to Heathfield and the lads needed to get a win here as they been playing well without having any luck.  The lads started well with lots of rucking and mauling also a strong scrum the tackling is getting better with each game played. So to go in at half time 15-0 up would lift the boys to a better second half but the handling of the ball was not good

We dropped too many balls in contact but the lads keep going and won the game with a try and a conversion to make the game safe.

Try scorers Tom b    5

                    Ryan     10

                    Mick      5

Conversion Steve      2

Final score Heathfield    0 Brighton   22

Before the game we were told that as a team we won team of the month

Brighton under 15’s would like to thank the BRIGHTON ROUNDTABLE 10 for the sponsorship of our new shirts.