Veni, Vidi, Vici...... We came, We saw, We conquered !
Rampant with belief, flushed with the pride of success from the previous
week's victory the machine like battalion of the Dartfordian mini
section sent forth once again it's regiment of U12's to battle yet
further from home in search of honours and glory...
We crossed the ford at Cray and ventured deep into the tunnelled cave of
Dartford emerging in the untamed world of Macedonia (now more commonly
known as Essex)....
The field at Upminster was to be the chosen ground of battle , a vast
tundra of a plain.
Stanford were our first opponent, an large aggressive foe.
Our slick, organized campaign however was no match for them and they
were dispatched with four magnificent tries which alerted the other
visiting hoards to our presence and the seriousness of our intentions.
They threw all they had at us but undaunted the wall held...the machine
moved on .
Thames were our next opponents. Disorganized yet hungry they forced the
match to become a little scrappy, following up kick after kick in a bid
to catch us out at the back. Two moments of individual brilliance did
for them and still the wall held and the machine moved on.
Dagenham were next, skills were honed and the mighty 21 of Dartfordians were not to be put down lightly.
The machine moved up a gear playing fine team rugby which resulted in
three great rugby tries and 'still' the wall held...
Last game of the pool ....us verses fellow vistors from Eden , Medway.
Both teams unbeaten, everything to play for ! Under huge pressure, the
kind that mortal man should not encounter in this life, the wall was
finally breeched , but once ! The effect, was like standing between a
new born elephant and its protective mother who would die before facing
dishonour amongst the herd. Furious, we countered throwing wave after
wave of attacking rugby at them, lunging, deceiving ,rampaging. The
inevitable score came , our tails were up , surely victory was imminent.
Alas too late, the final whistle went, forcing us to accept a draw and
relieving Medway of further pain.
We were awarded a place in the plate final rather than the cup given that they had scored 11 tries
verses our 10, even though they had conceded 3 tries whilst our wall was
breeched but once.
Nevertheless, Southend were to be our opponents. In the end a vanglorious display of modern
rugby , a rhodomontade of skills honed to their finest point occasioned
us to run out victors 3 - 0 with normality returning once more as the
wall remained once again unbreeched. Warriors of Darfordians , we salute
you.
"The Men On the Wall.....the 21 !!"
Josh Bunce, Jacob Eller, Bradley Crittenden, Max Parris, Lewis Collins,
Jack Hooban , Ashley Hadler, Jason Lord, Henry Pine-Coffin, Finlay Swain
(vice-cat), William Collins, Milan Patel, Adam Caligari, Ross Gladdish
(capt), Reece Jordan, Bradley Deamer, Aaron Dixon, Harry Ginn, Patrick
Ryan, Henry Wilson (sah), James O'lone.