With the pitches hardening up and the weather improving, the final game of the season was a highly anticipated rematch with Barking with them being the victors 33-25 back in early March.

Woodburns were caught napping in the ruck in the first minute as Barking stole the ball, scoring a try under the posts. This was neatly converted. This seemed to rouse Woodburns and Josh running in a try making it 5-7. This was swiftly followed by a cheeky grab try from Dan – our scrums were unbeatable. Everything seemed to be fitting together – passes, rucks, tackles, set plays and scrums. Josh ran in another one, neatly outpacing the opposition and Joe converted making the score 17-7. Everyone was playing their part with commitment today. Superior strength in the scrum from Jack B, Kenny and Tom on the front row and Joe and Jake on second. Tackles and ground gaining pace from many including: TT, Jayden, Ryan, Josh, Louie and Kai. Barking hit back with another converted try. With our scrum being so successful, it didn’t take long for it to be instrumental in a Woodburns try. With Kai at number 8, a big shove and he peeled off to score leaving Joe to convert. Half time score was 24-14. This was looking promising.

Barking scored quickly after half time which was also converted. 24-21 - the hearts were beginning to race a little as the score was becoming closer. The score stayed this way for over 10 minutes, making the spectators incredibly nervous. Barking seemed to be pushing back, their scrums becoming stronger but ours were impossible to break down today and Dan worked his way through to score his second, making the gap bigger but it wasn’t over yet. We had been here before and lost. All of a sudden, Barking had the ball close to the try line, but tall Joe was in the right place at the right time for a superb interception which he took full advantage of to score our 6th try. Joe converted it making the score safer at 36-21. The passes were being made out to the wings to Peter and Luke, who made his debut today, but unfortunately, we just couldn’t make it through. An impressive win for Woodburns today – Burnham RUFC’s Youth Team of the Year.

Player of the match was Tom O who was incredible as hooker today…not a single scrum lost.

This time last year many of these boys were wondering whether they would be playing rugby for their clubs this season or perhaps be looking for another club to play for or giving it up altogether. Twelve months on and what a team they have become. With fantastic coaching development from Chris, Andrew, Danny, Andy and Graham, these boys have bonded and have begun to play as one.

Match details

Match date

Sun 24 Apr 2022

Kickoff

12:30

Team overview

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