Under 11s at the Kent Festival Prelims

Folkestone U11s produced their best rugby to date at the Kent Prelims held at Medway RFC in the sunshine on Sunday.

Despite the usual slightly sloppy start allowing Maidstone an early lead in the first match, Folkestone quickly shook themselves awake and maintained the majority of possession from there on. Maidstone's penalty count was particularly high but Folkestone were continually denied the opportunity for a quick tap and go allowing the Maidstone defence time to regroup after their infringements, however, the Folkestone possession eventually paid off with Lewis Hammerton crossing the line to equalise. Again Folkestone piled on the pressure but ran out of time. 5-5 draw.

Second up came the giants of Whitstable, Folkestone passed the ball around very well, some good mauls sent Whitstable backwards and as Folkestone battered away at the strong Whitstable defence with all the forwards working well together, Toby Walton grounded to edge Folkestone ahead. Whitstable came back strongly to equalise but Folkestone then stepped up a gear again, continually out scrummaging the huge Whitstable pack and keeping the ball alive with some great rucking and quick passing throughout the team. The Folkestone speed and possession appeared to have paid off when their running rugby sent the ball wide to Joseph Faiers to score but the referee (without the benefit of several camera angles) ruled that the final pass went forward and so it the match was soon over, another hard fought draw 5-5.

Next up Old Colfeians and Folkestone's running rugby continued where it left off, the boys were now playing with great confidence and their rugby was being complimented by opposing coaches and supporters. Folkestone were quickly ahead, passing the ball around nicely and reached half time three tries to the good. Folkestone pressed on in the second half, they were guilty of being a little bit greedy in patches when the try line loomed large instead of finding the supporting overlaps but still ensured that the match was finished early by way of reaching six tries without response. Folkestone played extremely well, tries were from Kian Supple (2), Tristan Parmenter, Joseph Faiers, Cohen Double and one that Double and Tom Reina appeared to share.

At this stage, with one match to play, Folkestone were top of their group and would be heading to the cup final if they were to beat Medway (who still also had a game in hand) in the final match. This was a hard fought match and for Folkestone just having 14 players at the festival began to take its toll against Medway who were still fairly fresh after just the two games and the benefit of a longer break before this game too. Another big effort from the Stones, who continued to play attractive rugby but fell short with a 15-0 loss, Medway's quick winger being the main difference between the two teams, we no longer had the legs to keep up with him but a great effort from some very tired boys. Note, we'll up the fitness work this week.

This changed the finishing positions dramatically and somehow on count back, despite just the one loss, Folkestone were relegated to fourth in the group and a place in the Shield finals at Aylesford next month. This matters not, it was a great day of rugby, Folkestone's all round play was mostly excellent and a huge improvement on previous festivals. It would also be wrong just to mention the try scorers above as this was very much a whole team effort, Kieran Dorrell, Archie Green, Tom Cloke, Cameron Brown, TJ Leather, Leon Gurr and George James all very worthy of a mention on this website too, I could have included a passage of good play that each and every player was involved in but there's a limit to how long this report should be.....

Well done to all.