U8 v Loughborough

On a typical cold December morning, the Mischiefs and Rascals played at home and hosted Loughborough.

Mischiefs squad of Evie Stacey Smith (guesting), George Goss,Noah Green, Ethan Hack, Thomas Kimbell, William Milne, James Parr and Hugh Salvesen played 7 a side in two matches versus Loughborough. They won both games with the same score 4-3 with Goss, Hack and Kimbell scoring the tries. The last game was notable with the score 3-3 and Loughborough on the attack - but with pressure tagging and tight defence Mischiefs caused a turnover and they scored a dramatic length of the pitch try to secure the win.

The Rascals squad of Ronnie Collis, Tom Davis, Hal Eastwood, Oliver Mason, Sebastian Poyser, Harry Riley and Harley Williams also played Loughborough twice and duly won both games: first one 6-3 and then 5-4. Doubles by Collis, Poyser, Mason, Eastwood and Davis, with Riley also crossing. Being 7 a side the squad played all the games in full for once and gelled well and defended strongly, with the referee imposing the 7 tag rule meaning strong defence paid dividends.

Loughborough did have one exceptional runner (fast and powerful - he will be a real handful next year for certain !) and as they had 9 or 10 players on rolling substitution, the results might have been even closer.

The two Harborough squads also played each other with Rascals winning the day. First game they won by 5-4 and the second game 5-3 - Hal Eastwood proving very difficult to stop,and he duly scored a hat trick in both games. Thre was also notable strong support running and passing from Poyser and Mason.

So in summary Mischiefs played 4 and won 2, Rascals played 4 and won 4. More importantly general standard of play was high and showing improvement on individual skill basis as well as team play.