U10s Lions excel at the East Kent Tournament

We were able to field two teams this year, named the Alphas and the Ultras. Sam McGauran ran the Ultras for me, kindly stepping in at the last minute.
The team consisted of a mostly new players, with a couple of experienced players mixed in. The ultras put in a tremendous effort under the guidance of Sam, especially when you consider for many of them this was their first tournament. Despite dodgy weather and some even more dodgy ref's decisions the team went from strength to strength. Although not winning any of their three matches, you could see how much they improved between each game. As they gained experience and confidence they became more and more competitive! They were fantastically supported by their parents, who never ceased to cheer and encourage all the players.
For the Ultras we has 3 star players for the tournament:

Jess Lilly was awarded Try Scorer of the Tournament.
Joshua Friend was awarded Tackler of the Tournament.
Lucas Halford-Dunn was awarded Player of the Tournament.

Well done all of you.

Now, to the Alphas! This was a team made up of experienced players. They faced up against Canterbury A, Medway A and Folkestone A. We had no subs for the tournament in either team, so all players had to just keep going, despite how tired they got!
Our first match was against Folkestone A. There was only one team in this match, with the Alphas running in 5 tries to 1. The extra training the team have been doing on rucking paid dividends as they cleared Folkestone out almost every ruck in the match. A special mention goes to both Finley Theaker and Noah Weller in this match for their very strong running.
Tries were scored by William Price (3), Sebastian Powell (1) and Finley Wilson (1).
Next up was Medway A. They were a very well drilled team and were a very close match to us. However, on this occasion they managed to take their chances and beat us fair and square. Jimmy Irwin and Nathan Powell stood out as key players in this match. Nathan, playing on through injury and Jimmy for his hard work at the ruck.
Our final game was against Canterbury A. Our boys were battered and bruised by this point, but totally up for the contest. It was a very physical encounter. Our boys gave as good as they got and refused to be rolled over. We managed to overcome the physical nature of game to run out 3 - 1 winners. We were kept in the lead on this occasion by some try saving tackling by Jonny Lees.
Our try scorers were Sebastian Powell (2), who crossed the line with the entire Canterbury team being dragged behind him and Finley Wilson (1) who simply side stepped and danced his way through their line (a trick I think he has learnt from Nathan Powell).
All the boys were fantastic, however the following three were chosen by the parents for the star awards:
Sebastian Powell was awarded Try Scorer of the Tournament.
Jonny Lees was awarded Tackler of the Tournament.
William Price was awarded Player of the Tournament.