Under 9s Reports (Most recent at Top)

13/05/07 Dads V Lads

The morning of the 13th May dawned dry and bright - perfect conditions for a display of running rugby and perfect conditions for spectators to enjoy such a display.

By 10:30 however, it was raining. The Dads v Lads game traditionally marks the end of the season for the under 7s,8s and 9s, so it is perhaps fitting that it should be played in traditional rugby weather.

The boys were obviously switched on for this game as they fell in to their usual pre-match warm-up routine of prannying around, tackling each other unawares from behind, and kicking the ball aimlessly across the pitch at any available opportunity.

The Dads were similarly psyched, with Richard Sorrill having turned up in his work shoes, Phil Wood dressed all in black looking like he was Special Forces Operative kitted for a night drop, and Richard Hale inexplicably having turned up in a wet suit.

The game kicked off with Dave(Farnsworth)'s daughter as referee, but her grasp of the rules proved far too lucid and inflexible, so Rees (playing tight-head for the Dad's) was  forced to take over.

I doubt that the concept of player-refereeing will ever catch on in the Premiership. Rees was very even-handed. Very even-handed for a tight-head prop that is. He penalised himself for giving a forward pass  - probably just to prove to us that front-rowers know what these are - but delighted in cheating outrageously at every scrum.

By the end of the game his son Joe (loose-head for the boys) was looking pretty grumpy. William, the tight-head, was pretty indignant too. Boys! if you want to play prop, you are going to have to develop a thicker skin. The moral victory was yours!

Owain's father was given another reason why backs should never bend down and stick their head in a maul when his son scampered round behind him and gave him such a slap on his derriere that I expect the hand-print will still be evident some days hence.

Richard (Sorrill - he of the work shoes) let down the whole fathers' side by being turned inside out and left for dead by the smallest player on the pitch. Little Bomber ran at him and Richard thought he'd let Bomber run by and catch him from behind. Oh how we enjoyed the sight of 14 stone of middle England on flat soled shoes and wet grass attempting  to turn and chase about two foot nothing of muscle and enthusiasm on studs and adrenaline. Needless to say, Bomber scored.

But the moment of the match must surely be when the apprentice showed the master that his time has come. It was a bit like watching the Karate Kid beat up Mr. Miyagi. You knew it could happen but it was still a bit of a shock. Tom ran at Dave and then sidestepped and spun off him. Dave was left standing with his feet planted, his arms open and his head turned looking over his shoulder to where Tom was running in the try. There was only one person on the pitch not grinning from ear to ear and that was not Tom. Dave grinned too - but he had to close his mouth first.

The boys won 6-1. It was nice to see that some of them did work out that passing into space, attacking out wide and keeping the ball alive was the best strategy when playing opponents that are on average 3 times your weight!

The Dads and Lads shook hands after the game and little Jack Uzzell said to me "I thought we were supposed to be playing the Dads - not the Mums"!!.  Bah. These young uns. They're even getting better than us at the post-match banter!

Well done boys. See you next year.

In this picture one of the boys makes a rather ambitious attempt to rip the ball from the opposition.

22/04/07 at home to Reading (pronounced "Redding")

Players. Christian Wood; David Sorrill; Fernando De Oliveira; Jack Gibion; James Sorrill, Joe Jenkins; Luke Uzzell; Michael Hale; Owain Hire; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan.

First match; Swindon 5, Reading 4.
In another thrilling game, these two teams were very well matched, Reading had the best of the territory, but Swindon never gave up in defence and managed to score tries on the break. The play was excellent from both teams and there was a period of uninterrupted play for over five minutes. This did not mean that they played half heartedly, far from it, as more often than not the play was stopped for injuries rather than infringements. Thanks to four tries from Tom Codling and one from Owain hire, Swindon ended this match 5-4 winners.

Second match; Swindon 1, Reading 1.
The second match carried on where the first finished, neither side giving any quarter, the play ranged across the whole pitch and we saw some incredible feats of defending from both teams, consequently the score at half time was 0-0. In the second half a defensive error by Reading allowed Tom Codling to run in Swindon's only try but Reading made amends by scoring a superb team try a few minutes later to level the score. The end result being a well deserved draw.

It must be said how well these matches were played, there was almost no deliberate foul play and what few stoppages there were, were because of forced errors. This made the matches free flowing and exciting to watch. Well done to both teams.

Man of the Matches: Jack Gibion

Expert Analysis from Jeremy Guscott

Would be nice... but instead you get to read what I think.

Reading have obviously been coaching their forwards well since the last time the teams met. This time Swindon had to work twice as hard in the tackle area and even then barely held their own.  The pitch was a bit narrower than usual and Reading asked to play 10 v 10 as they had brought a lot of players. This partly explains the low score in the second game as there was no space for the backs to run in. For the same reason it probably contributed to the long breathless passages of play where no team seemed to be able to make a break and score and yet there was always another pair of hands ready for the ball and ready to keep trying.

My personal favourite moment of this whole game was a ruck. It was a proper ruck that played out in the manner that rucks are supposed to play out. Where the players did what the coaches tell them to do, and everything just worked.

Tom made a huge effort before finally being dragged down around the half way line. Having weaved across the pitch and away from any support, things were looking bleak. Nevertheless, he did all he could, falling with his body positioned as per the coaching handbook and laying the ball back in the manner proscribed. William was galloping up but was only going to have any chance at all at competing for the ball because the three or four Reading defenders that were closer to it were having to go round to come back in from an on-side position. It is to the credit of the Reading players that their discipline held and they did indeed go round and come in from their own side. Had William picked up the ball he would simply have been knocked over and the ball would have been lost. But instead, he bent low over the ball (and Tom) and braced himself. The three Reading players drove in and began to shift William back, but only slowly. He now had his feet well back and was holding on to Tom's shirt! With that, Joe came and helped William push and then Owain picked up the ball from a relatively protected position.

For forwards this is poetry! This really is teamwork. Tom has done his bit and needs William to help him out, then William does his bit and needs his team mates to help him in turn. If anyone is not there or does the wrong thing then Reading have won the ball. But instead of that, the teamwork worked.

As an example of the intensity of this game. Look at some of the faces in the picture below (click on it to enlarge)

09/04/07 hosts to touring team Beddau (pronounced "Bather")

Players. Christian Wood; Daniel Uzzell; David Sorrill; Jack Gibion; James Sorrill, Joe Jenkins; Luke Uzzell; Owain Hire; Tom Bain; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan.

Swindon 3, Beddau 8.

In this touring Welsh side, Swindon met their fiercest opposition of the year, every tackle was crunching, every maul was almost fought to the death. Several of these mauls went over half the length pitch, the spectators waiting with baited breath to see which side would eventually emerge with the ball. Despite the visitors lead being only three tries to two at half time, Swindon were unable to contain some of their larger players and conceded a further five tries, although with a little better luck the score-line could have been a lot more even. Swindon conducted themselves with restraint and calmness despite being on the receiving end of some unorthodox tactics. The try scorers for Swindon were Tom Codling (2) and William Sullivan (1).

Men of the Match: The Whole team.

From your embedded correspondent at the Battle of Beddau

I think the boys were left slightly shell-shocked by this game.

Beddau were quite the most aggressive and committed team that Swindon have ever played. Occasionally they were too aggressive. I have never seen anyone sent off at Under 9, but it happened in this game. There were tackles off the ball, lifting legs in the mauls, punches, kicks - all sorts of things coming Swindon's way and the boys stood up to it well. When Beddau played rugby, they played well. Had they given away fewer penalties they would have won by more. The thing that won them the game was simply that  they played with an intensity that our boys have never come across.

As an example of this, William, who is so often in the thick of it winning the ball for Swindon in the rucks and mauls had a torrid time of it today. Rees (the forwards coach) spends a lot of time trying to get our forwards to drive on over the ball rather than pick it up. The reason for this is that if you stop to pick the ball up and the other team just drive over it, you get knocked into next week and lose the ball. Normally the opposition is as poor at driving over the ball as we are (they are only Under 9s remember) and so William is given time to pick up the ball and get moving while the opposition watch. Beddau at least proved a point for the coach. Twice in quick succession William was first to arrive at a tackle and bent down to pick up the ball. Twice he was immediately dumped on his bottom by Beddau players who simply knocked him over and drove straight over the top of him, ball and all.

This story was repeated in all the positions, all over the pitch. The fact that the pitch has gone from being a submerged quagmire to something as hard and abrasive as concrete within two weeks did not help matters (I exaggerate - but not much). Owain ended up looking like he'd been dragged around the car park behind a car.

The boys did exceptionally well to lift their game to compete at all in this match - and yet compete they did.

If Swindon can take on board the intensity of Beddau's game and reproduce it (without the concomitant infringements and occasional bad behaviour) then their future opponents had better watch out.

01/04/07 away at Supermarine

Players. Christian Wood; Daniel Uzzell; David Sorrill; Jack Gibion; James Sorrill, Joe Jenkins; Luke Uzzell; Michael Hale; Owain Hire; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan.

First match; Swindon 10, Supermarine 1.

Swindon started this match at a fast hard pace, ripping the ball from Supermarine's possession at nearly every maul, then taking the ball forward to tie up the Supermarine players before moving it out to the fast runners who scored the tries. Supermarine's attacks were met with stout defending, and after a couple of attempts to run the ball wide were met by Swindon's wings defending well and in depth, they decided to continue with the attacks in the center but rarely troubled Swindon's forwards for long. Swindon's try scorers were Owain Hire (5), Tom Codling (4) and Christian Wood (1).

Second match; Swindon 9, Supermarine 1.

To their credit Supermarine came back more determined than ever for this second match, but still found Swindon's defence a hard nut to crack. Swindon were able to overwhelm the Supermarine defence and on occasion run through in numbers giving themselves plenty of opportunity to score despite some excellent tackles from Supermarine. Swindon's try scorers were Owain Hire (2), Tom Codling (2), William Sullivan (2), Christian Wood (1), Luke Uzzell (1) and Tommy Farnsworth (1).

Man of the Matches: Luke Uzzell.

An Eye Witness Account:

This was a bad-tempered match with far too much derogation of the opposition and arguing with the referee. There were spiteful asides, and inappropriate body language. But enough about the behaviour of the parents and coaches.

The boys played well again. The score shows how dominant they were, but in these situations it is sometimes difficult to tell whether one team played out of their skins or the other was just having a bad day.

Little Dave definitely had a good game. I overheard his father offering him pecuniary inducements before the game, contingent upon the number of opponents that were brought to ground, and by golly it worked! More than once Supermarine were forced across the pitch by a resolute Swindon defence and when they got as far out as Little Dave's wing they probably fancied their chances. After all, the "Little" in Little Dave's nickname owes nothing to irony. But no, they'd be scythed down like....er, well, large rugby players being tackled correctly by smaller ones.

Tom flew, Owain danced, William lumbered (deliberately and purposefuly), Joe boshed, Tommy scored! - and so on and so forth. They all did well.

But Luke got man of the match.

There are only two things to do in the face of somebody called Luke. You either steer away from the subject of Star Wars altogether or try to think of something that has not been said before. So far, the U9s are adopting the former approach. Luke definitely played extremely well!

25/03/07 at Supermarine against Fairford

Players. Christian Wood; Daniel Uzzell; David Sorrill; Jack Gibion; James Sorrill, Joe Jenkins; Luke Uzzell; Owain Hire; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan.

First match; Swindon 5, Fairford 3.
Swindon started in their usual style, and were surprised to find a team who also stole the ball in a maul and would make deep penetrating runs. A classic game ensued with the teams being very evenly matched, the eventual victory for Swindon being due to their superior defending. Swindon's try scorers were Owain Hire (2), Tom Codling (2) and William Sullivan (1).

Second match; Swindon 4, Fairford 3.
In this second match Fairford came back at Swindon with renewed vigour, and having got the measure of Swindon's play had widened their defence so by half time the only score was one try to Swindon. In the second half the teams were evenly matched, playing try for try, there were some amazingly long passages of play from both sides, making this the most entertaining match all season. Swindon were relieved to have won this match by four tries to three. Swindon's try scorers were Tom Codling (3) and Owain Hire (1).

Fairford were a couple of players short so sportingly allowed two of our team to make up the numbers, well done to James Sorrill and Jack Gibion who played well for Fairford and well done to Luke Uzzell for an excellent debut. Also a big thank you to Supermarine for their splendid hospitality.

Man of the Matches: Joe Jenkins.

Further musings from a spectator

At the beginning of the year Swindon ran away with it against Fairford - so Fairford have obviously been working hard!

This was the best sort of game to watch, either team could have won if they had just found a way to play a little bit faster, harder or better. If any one of the Swindon players had given less than they did, Fairford would have won at least one of these games.

A particular mention must go to Luke. This was his first game after only training once. He was thrown in to the forwards for this game. There are only 3 forwards at Under 9 and so if Luke had been a weak link, then Swindon would have lost the forwards battle. He was not, and they did not. Several times Luke kept the ball for Swindon by acting while others waited to react.

Owain is being fined 10p by his father for running the length of the pitch, dodging around every member of the opposition at least twice and then stopping to bend down to ground the ball. He was gleefully bundled into touch-in-goal by several very frustrated Fairford players who had been chasing him for about 50 yards and were grateful he'd at last stood still.

William scored the first try of the day which involved a pick-and-go from a  ruck and some determined driving (William does not do dodging) before being brought to a standstill by several Fairford players about 6ft from the try line. Fortunately, falling like a tree in the forest, with one arm fully extended, William can apparently reach fractionally over 6ft.

The man of the match, Joe, gave a committed performance at hooker. His father (the forwards coach) had sought to imbue his son's game with a sense of urgency by addressing him thus: "Get in there! If they're in the way, knock them out of the way!". This is undoubtedly sound advice for anyone inboard of  the scrum half, and can be applied in almost any situation that a hooker is likely to be expected to cope with. Joe hit the next ruck so hard that he knocked both William and Owain clean out of the front of it. The fact that Owain was playing scrum half and about to pick up the ball at the time only underlines the fact that Joe was definitely up for it.

28/01/07 at home against Minety

Players. Christian Wood; Jake Cox; James Easton; Joe Jenkins; Owain Hire; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan; Michael Hale; Daniel Uzzell

Swindon 10  Minety 2

This was the U9s first game for 7 weeks and it is fair to say that there was a lack of 'match sharpness' in several cases. However, the end result was a good overall performance by Swindon.

Minety made a good start with a determined little bulldog of a boy named Eddie taking the ball into contact and, pretty much single-handedly, mauling the ball half the length of the pitch until finally managing to ground the ball over the Swindon line. Well done Eddie!

He never got quite as far again, as the Swindon forwards woke up a bit, but Eddie did a lot of good work throughout the game.

Tom played his usual game - which means he scored half of Swindon's tries (5) by means of elegant arcing runs that succeed by dint of the fact that none of the opposition can run as fast as he can. Owain was busy too, dodging and diving, ducking and weaving - generally being the Shane Williams* to Tom's Jonah Lomu and getting 4.  Rhino was running in support in the right place and at the right time and so only had to pick the ball up and take a step forward to score the other Swindon try.

The backs outside of Owain and Tom did not see much of the ball as on the rare occasions when Tom or Owain did not score themselves, it was the Swindon forwards who won the ball and trundled on a bit before giving the ball back to Owain or Tom.

James Easton ran well in support and was in position on Tom's shoulder for most of Tom's tries. James also put in a nice tackle much to everyone's( not least his Mum's) delight.

Swindon's first up tacking was generally quite poor with several of the Minety players getting a long way over the gain line before being stopped. Fortunately for Swindon, Minety were not recycling their ball and so Minety only managed 2 tries. Had Minety managed to keep the ball after a few tackles the score would have been much less one-sided.

Minety played much of the first half with 8 players (not 9) as they suffered an injury but had no replacements. Swindon offered to play 8v8 but the Minety coaches sportingly insisted that a Swindon player should not be deprived of a game. So it was 8v9 - and that on a big pitch. In the second half Michael Hale played for Minety so at least it was 9v9 again but this meant that Daniel Uzzell - who has only just started playing and was on the bench (what bench?) during the first half - came on for Swindon.

When Daniel came on for the second half he immediately showed his more experienced team mates exactly how to tackle. Out on his wing, Daniel was the last line of defence as a big Minety player who had already run through three tackles came thundering towards him at a full gallop. Daniel stood his ground and then neatly tackled his man around the thighs. Textbook stuff, it must have brought a tear to the coaches' eyes. It certainly brought a roar of approval from their throats!

Daniel did other good work during the rest of the game, showing alertness and a general physical and mental whole-heartedness in anything he decided to do. For this the coaches made Daniel Uzzell the Man of the Match.

After such a one-sided score line in the first match, Minety declined to play a second game. This is perhaps understandable. RFU guidelines for the U9s recommend that matches should be abandoned whenever one team is more than 6 tries ahead as it is felt that such one-sided contests are no good for either team. But after so long with no games, the boys were disappointed.

*Owain's Dad insisted that Owain could only be compared to a Welshman.

10/12/06 away at Reading

Players. Christian Wood; David Sorrill; Jake Cox; James Easton; James Sorrill, Joe Jenkins; Owain Hire; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan.

First match; Swindon U9s 8, Reading U9s 2. Swindon started well scoring twice before Reading stepped up a gear and levelled the score. Not to be out-done Swindon persevered, through good work in the mauls, excellent defending and hard tackling ran home another six tries to beat this determined Reading team eight-two. Swindon's try scorers were Tom Codling (3), Christian Wood (1), Jake Cox (1), James Easton (1), Owain Hire (1) & Tommy Farnsworth (1).

Second match; Swindon U9s 8, Reading U9s 0. Swindon having found their winning ways in the first match, did not lose concentration in the second match. Despite an aggressive attack from the Reading team, Swindon kept their discipline and played as if it were a Six Nations Calcutta Cup match. At one point near the end of the match, when Swindon were seven-nil ahead, they were defending a scrum a few yards from their try line, lesser men would have conceded the try and been happy with a good win, but this team won back the ball and then went on to score a good team try at the Reading try-line! Swindon's scorers were Tom Codling (4), Owain Hire (2), Christian Wood (1) & James Easton (1).

It must be mentioned what excellent hosts Reading were. The scores didn't do justice to how well their team played and they were unlucky to find our team in such superb form. There is the consideration also that our team had been well rested, (due to the weather,) over the previous weeks, yet Reading had played match after match, never-the-less, the refereeing was impeccable and the matches good humoured. Well done!

Men of the Matches: Christian Wood; David Sorrill; Jake Cox; James Easton; James Sorrill, Joe Jenkins; Owain Hire; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan (The whole Team)

A proud parent's perspective:
I am William's father, so you must allow for my bias,  but the way I saw the games was like this:

Reading attacked well. Sometimes they tried to bash through the middle and sometimes they tried to spread the ball wide. Their forwards were getting there in support and their passing was good. They did most things well. But they got nowhere.

Going wide didn't work because the whole Swindon team worked hard in defence and, every time Reading did find a gap out wide, Tom Codling would be covering across like an Exocet missile, doing about 30mph and fully horizontal at the moment of impact, the crunch of the tackle only masked by the sharp intake of breath from the spectators.

Bashing up  the middle didn't work because none of the Swindon team took a step backwards and every time there was a ruck or a maul, William stole the ball. It didn't matter who took the ball in, or how well protected it looked, there'd be a short period of confusion and then William would emerge with it.

Reading also defended well, but if every tackle is just another platform from which Swindon can renew the attack then sooner or later Swindon are going to score. Since the whole Swindon team simply weren't making mistakes today, Reading's only hope was to win the ball after the tackle. But there was no hope of that because William 'McCaw' Sullivan (as I may already have mentioned) was having such a stunningly good game at the breakdown.

29/10/06 at Abingdon against Witney and Abingdon

Players. Christian Wood; David Sorrill; Jake Cox;James Easton; Joe Jenkins; Michael Hale; Owain Hire; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan.

First match; Swindon U9s 7, Abingdon U9s 2.
Swindon started this week's campaign in great style, stunning Abingdon with their aggressive tackling, rarely giving Abingdon a moment to run the ball. The Swindon forwards would pull in the Abingdon team and then move the ball out to their backs who ran in seven tries, four for Tom Codling and three for James Easton.

Second match; Swindon U9s 2, Witney U9s 4.
In this second match Swindon's players met a more determined opposition who would not let Swindon dominate in the rucks, so despite two tries from Tom Codling, Witney finished the match 4-2 ahead.

Man of the Match: Joe Jenkins.

08/10/06 Away Against Minety

Players. Christian Wood; David Sorrill; Jake Cox James Easton; James Sorrill; Joe Jenkins; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan.

First match; Swindon U9s 4, Minety U9s 7.
Swindon were caught off guard by a fast Minety team who had opened up a two try lead by half time. In the second half Swindon still struggled until they found that Minety would buckle under pressure from Swindon's forwards, but this discovery came too late to save the match, which despite two tries from Tom Codling and a try apiece from Jake Cox and Christian Wood, Minety won by seven tries to four.

Second match; Swindon U9s 4, Minety U9s 2.
In this second match Swindon's grit and determination paid dividends, Minety found themselves unable to cope with Swindon's forwards, who ran in three of the four tries. Swindon's try scorers were Christian Wood, Tom Codling, Jake Cox and William Sullivan.

Man of the Match: Christian (Rhino) Wood

Ramblings from an onlooker:
These were matches where Rhino lived up to his nickname. Swindon has grown accustomed to magnificent solo efforts from Tom, Jake and Owain, which involve them skipping, dodging and weaving around the entire opposition before scoring. Rhino's technique in scoring his own single-handed try was quite different. No dodging or weaving was involved. He ran straight up the middle of the pitch, bouncing Minety players out of the way as he went. Marvellous!

Minety deserved to win the first game in that they have a very fast strong boy whom almost none of the Swindon players could tackle. But what was encouraging for Swindon is that although some of our tries were similarly down to superb solo efforts, there were also some that did not rely on the brilliance of any single player but were scored by teamwork. If the U9s can learn to defend as a team as well as they attack as a team they will be very, very hard to beat.

01/10/06 Away Against Fairford

Players. Christian Wood; David Sorrill; Jake Cox, James Easton; James Sorrill; Joe Jenkins; Michael Hale; Owain Hire; Tom Codling; Tommy Farnsworth; William Sullivan.

Swindon 7, Fairford 4.
Swindon started their season in great style, even though it was a blustery and very wet day. They kept their passes short and good work from the forwards allowed the Swindon backs to open up an early two try lead. Fairford were rarely able to exploit their full pace due to Swindon's superb tackling and then they had to contend with Swindon's superior handling and moving out of the ball. Swindon might have made double figures, but Fairford were lucky to concede only seven tries, six of which were run in by Tom Codling and one by James Easton.

Man of the Match: Tom Codling.