The regular season finished on a high for Leighton Buzzard U12’s at the Aylesbury Festival this weekend. This tournament has traditionally been one that Buzzards have performed well at over previous seasons.
Buzzards were drawn against Drifters from Farnham Common, Amersham & Chesham and touring side Newport.
The first two pool matches were both against Drifters who went on to be the eventual Cup winners. Buzzards started brightly but were unable to breach the Drifters defence. In the return match Lewis Jeans and William McAndrew crossed the try line to start to the day’s scoring.
In the following two fixtures against Amersham and Newport tries were scored by Finlay Rodger, Joseph Chapman, Charlie Rumens and Lewis Jeans who displayed some quick thinking from one of the restarts to wrong foot the opposition. The boys were finally starting to show more of their true potential but coach Harry Charter demanded both greater intensity and more physicality that he knew the boys were capable of.
The final match of the day saw Buzzards pitched against a Barbarians side to play for the third place Bowl trophy. Back of grass and playing with renewed energy and determination, Buzzards put in their strongest performance of the day showing great attacking intent coupled with a high defensive press. Jack Charter crossed for a hat-trick of tries whilst both William McAndrew and Finlay Rodger barrelled over from short range. Player’s Player of the Year Charlie Rumens, came back onto the pitch having earlier suffered a brutal high-tackle to score the final try of the day to see Buzzards pick up a well-deserved trophy.
Playersand parents now look forward to the end of season tour to Camber Sands and a well-deserved break over the summer months.
