And they’re off! London Junior League kicked off in style this weekend with the London Junior League 9’s openers at Richmond.
Skolars U13’s, U15’s and U17’s have been in training for the past 4 weeks and there was a real air of excitement at New River as the teams travelled in convoy down to west London.
Unfortunately for the U15’s their tournament was cancelled late on Friday as the pitches were deemed unplayable. However a solid group of 20 boys took the chance to have an extra training session at New River, which will stand them in good stead come next weekend’s opening London Junior League Fixtures.
The U13’s and U17’s however were thrust into action straight away and joined a number of clubs from across London in their respective competitions. The U13’s strengthened by a number of new recruits and returning players were able to put 2 sides into the competition, which provided all the boys with the opportunity to have as much game time as possible, which is invaluable to the development of these players. Despite results not going their way Head Coach Paul Quill was pleased with the outcomes ‘the boys were a relatively new side today, with lots of players meeting each other for the first time, we came up against some big units and I was extremely happy with the way the players conducted themselves on and off the field.’
The U17’s also took a large group of boys, however decided to keep their team as one unit, but still managed to give a number of new players some much needed game time. Fred Pentecost took charge of the team in the absence of Matt Cuss and Sean Scott, with Pete Hamer assisting him. He was able to field 2 brand new players and 6 boys who made their U17’s debuts, along with the core of last year’s squad. It proved to be a fantastic combination as they marched through the opening fixtures conceding only one try en-route to the final, where they faced Elmbridge Eagles. In what was a fantastic game, the score-line was locked at 8-8 as the final whistle blew, and extra time was needed to separate two very good teams. Chris Anderson proved to be the hero as he crossed for a golden-point try 5 minutes into extra-time.
Coach Fred Pentecost was extremely happy with his charges ‘the boys played some fantastic rugby league today, we kept our error count low and attack was clinical. There are a few things to work on such as our line speed, we granted the opposition far too many easy metres, however overall I was really pleased for the boys and it’s always fantastic to come away with a trophy.’ We were without a few key players and we look forward to welcoming them back next week, as the League competition begins.’
Community Development Manager Matt Cuss was extremely pleased with the outcome of all the weekends activities, he commented ‘it’s fantastic to finally get under-way, our U13’s took enough for two teams, U15’s had 20 boys training, and we also had 4 brand new Minis who turned up for their first session, the U17’s winning was the 9’s for the first time in their history was the icing on the cake for them.’ Again it’s down to the hard-work of many individuals, who manage to keep the club developing and growing each year, I’m really looking forward to the season now and this weekend’s results bode incredibly well for all our fantastic Minis and Junior teams.
Next Saturday see’s the start of the London Junior League season with fixtures released tonight, meanwhile at New River our Mini’s have their second session of the season as they build towards their first Festival in April.
