On a Surprisingly Sunny Autumnal Day at Allianz Park, Saracens Easily Saw Off Newcastle

On a surprisingly sunny Autumnal day at Allianz Park, Saracens easily saw off Newcastle Falcons 40-3.

However, despite the billing on the tickets and the glossy programme, this was certainly not the main event of the day and proved merely to be a fitting finale to a fantastic mini rugby tournament featuring 31 teams Under 8’s “development teams” coming from 22 different clubs from Hertfordshire, Essex, Middlesex and Kent.

Harpenden Rugby Club sent two teams for this 6 a side tournament, the first team winning a keenly fought match against the Pumas team of their local rivals Old Albanians 5-3 in their opening match.

Harpenden’s second team, featuring many players who had not played in an away tournament before, were not over-awed by their august surroundings and managed a very creditable 5-5 draw against Royston’s first team in their opening fixture.

Harpenden’s first team pretty much assured their safe passage with a convincing 12-7 victory in their next match against Verulamians Sharks, whereas the second team lost by the narrowest margin Brentwood 6-5.

Around this time some of the towering Saracens players started arriving at the ground and took an interest in this rugby spectacle provided by the minis. Eager to impress these human hulking goliaths Harpenden’s first team despatched Enfield Ignatians in a narrow 8-7 victory. At the same time on the adjacent pitch Harpenden’s second team put up strong resistance before losing 6-2 to a team from Letchworth.

Harpenden’s second team finished their day with a narrow and perhaps harsh 6-5 defeat to Saracens Amateurs. Despite losing their last match 6-5 to Bancroft, given the narrowness of the defeat and due to this being the only blot on their otherwise 100% record, Harpenden’s first team ensured they topped their group on the basis of tries scored, with OA Pumas a narrow second. So onwards to the finals day in March, by which time hopefully the Harpenden hierarchy will have come up with some slightly snappier team names than Team One and Team Two!

As a footnote, as pleasing as witnessing the enjoyment of the children was when one of the senior referees for the day took the time at the end of the matches to come over and commend the Harpenden teams on their attitude and sporting conduct.

Ably representing the two Harpenden teams were:

Team One: Evan Cleary, Sam Coffer, Esme Gallagher, Charlie Hairon, James Hammill, Toby Knight and Roman Senner.

Team Two: Luke Bryers, Thomas Chisholm, Alexander Evans, Finlay Stephenson, Henry Tice, Jonathan Webb, Ben White and Thomas White.