Saxons Tough it out at Bournemouth and Poole

What a fantastic weekend we had at the Bournemouth and Poole Festival last weekend. We have been going to this festival for 5 years now and it never disappoints those who make the journey. We are always guaranteed to meet quality sides from across the country who are on tour and determined to have a good time. They are always good teams from good big clubs and it tends to be the committed players who travel.

So we use this festival to gain experience of how teams are playing outside of Hampshire. This year we played teams from Braintree, Blackheath, High Wycombe and another ‘local’ team, Swanage and Wareham.

We won our first game against Swanage which was great, we do know how to win. As expected the other matches were much harder. We fell into a pattern of going behind by a couple of tries in the first half but then coming back much stronger and dominating the second halfs against the three other teams and scored tries against all of them. We had a squad of 12 players on Saturday who all played every minute with real courage; I did get the feeling that if we had had a bigger squad with us we could have rolled some of those teams.

By Sunday we were down to 10 players who had to fight doubly hard. Swanage had lost all their matches the previous day with some big losses and were looking to get something from the weekend and they took an early lead. We came back in the second half and dominated but ran out of time to level, 5-15. The next game was against Braintree, lying second in the pool and they rolled us by 6 tries – this is the only match of 8 and the first in a long time where we were rolled like that. Bear in mind this is the same team we won a half from the day before.

We then played High Wycombe the top team and eventual winners of the pool. Far from letting their heads drop after the previous defeat, the Saxons came out of the blocks like Lions. They were fearless, smashing High Wycombe in the tackles, rucking over and winning the ball and then shipping it to ball carriers and moving it 2 away. The phases of play were like watching a premiership team. There were massive tackles going in and real controlled aggression; players were stepping up and taking charge. It was a humbling display. I was watching from the try area with Coach Paul and Liams older brother and all three of us were gasping with awe. We came very close to scoring during those phases. The half finished 0-0 and we carried on into the second half. Injuries told and we backed off the pace and Wycombe were able to get back in the game. The Wycombe team and parents massive cheer when they finally scored in the third quarter showed their relief and said it all. You were amazing Saxons and I have not seen you play like that, it was a glimpse of your future.

Blackheath kindly lent us 3 players for the last match in true rugby festival spirit but we were pretty spent.

I would like to say a massive thank you to the parents who got the Saxons there for an O my god 0900 on both days and to our coaches Nick and Paul who provided the Good Cop, Bad Cop debriefs you needed and earned.

I would also like to say a massive thank you to our Sponsors as the Saxons were playing in their sponsored Match kit for the first time! So a big thank you to Resolute Property Management and the Big Voice care of Josh’s parents Mark and Cate and Toby’s parents Sean and Coralie. Our hygienic match drinks bottles have also been provided by the Gosport Pub ‘’The Three Tuns’ by the landlord through Coach Nick. Thank you, the team performance now deserves the best kit and you have provided it.

I cant mention the whole team, but a few players deserve mention. Matthew T and James T put their bodies on the line every time and inspired the team, Callum won every ruck he joined proper;y, Connor won all bar one of his put ins at the scrum and plenty of others, Ollie and Freddie made some great finishes for tries. Toby stepped up as Scrum Half on Sunday and has found his niche, he has always been good at cleaning up rubbish ball and moving it on nicely wrapped and useable. Player of the match/tournament could only go to one player – I thought the High Wycombe Coach had summed him up correctly when he positively described him as a ‘tackling machine’, but it was one of the Saxons who, during my debrief without looking up from tying his shoelace refined the description to ‘Tackling Psychopath’. That is the highest accolade from a team mate and their is only one Liam Charlson ‘Tackling Psychopath’. Congratulations Liam.

The Saxons never have a big squad for this festival and every year in the build up when I am scrabbling around for players, I wonder why we do it. But your performance over the two days reminds me of why we do this, you are the stars. The High Wycombe Coaches came up to us after and described you as fearless, the best match of the festival for them and can they come and visit/host us next year?

Well done Saxons, you did that.