Streatham-Croydon U9/10 explode in action at Surrey Development Festival

The Surrey Development Festival marked the end of the mini's season and with it came the opportunity for our Streatham-Croydon (S-C) players to finish on a high.

The festival hosted by Old Reigatians was well organised and had many teams in Surrey participating. They were 24 teams in the under10s alone! With this being Rugby World Cup year and it taking place in our own 'back yard', it was a delight to see so many young boys and girls taking up the sport and being supported by their parents!

Our squad had a very good day. Pretty much everything that the S-C team had worked on over the season came to fruition.
With quick alignment in defence, support play in attack, good presentation in the ruck, counter rucking when the opponent went to ground; scoring loads of tries; the squad made Coaches Duncan and Femi very proud.

In addition to the displays on the pitch, off the field the behaviour of the whole squad was exemplary, to the point that one of the organisers came to complement us on how well behaved our team were.

It was also fantastic to see so many players turn up for the tournament, creating a nice problem for the coaches to have for a change; to make sure that every player got game time.

In the first match against Guildford, S-C showed great attacking flair to win 6-3, but what impressive was the discipline in defence holding the defence line and attacking from deep.
S-C Try Scorers: Dan I 3, Diran 1, Fabian 1, Sam 1

In the second match against Sutton & Epsom, the team contained their big guys and runners, then counter attacked to great effect. After taking a hard fought 3-2 lead, from the restart and in the last play of the match, S&E ran in an equalising try to earn a 3-3 draw
S-C Try Scorers Dan I 1, Lorenzo 1, Sam 1

The third match against Wimbledon; arguably S-C’s most testing match of the festival, as they were evenly matched. It was going to be an interesting contest. We went 1-0 down as half time but were chipping away to even the match when Diran was injured in the tackle.
Whilst he was being seen to by St Johns and the First Aid Team, the team continued but could not break Wimbledon's defence and went down 1-0

With Diran taken to hospital as a precautionary measure (he was later discharged – rugby shirt cut open but with medal around his neck) the team set about playing their final game against Effingham & Leatherhead. Playing with great skill and determination, the finished the game winning 6-3.
S-C Try scorers: Ben 1, Dan I 2, Fabian 1, Lorenzo 1, Nathaniel 1

It would be difficult to pick any one individual as it was a fantastic team effort, so the whole squad gets a mention.

Streatham-Croydon squad:
Aidan Deguara, Joshua Collins, Marley Lyttle, Benjamin Bahadur, Charlie Richer, Jonathan Kangodia, Ffion Biggart, Samuel Kabia, Diran Oresanya, Daniel Ivanov, Georgia Lalande, Lorenzo Zilli, Abhinav Menon, Andy Aheto, Fabian Baptiste, Nathaniel Cameron, James Ward, Daniel Deguara and Joseph Gallon.

Well done Team