U12 beat Esher U12 to win the Chairman's Bowl Final

On a sunny day of U12 Surrey Waterfall Cup finals, Streatham-Croydon RFC lined up to play Esher in the final of the Chairman’s Bowl Competition. Both teams came into the final having beaten their semi-final opponents a month earlier by similar scores.

With silverware to play for, the S+C squad choose the final game of the season to play their best game.
Playing front foot rugby, defending in numbers and running in tries from all over the park, they won 60-30 in a pulsating game. However, the final score belies how close the game was at times.
Diran Oresanya (C) opened the scoring in the first 2 mins, but Esher equalised on 7 mins. The equaliser shook the boys into action and two quick tries from Jamal Reid and Diran in successive mins created a 15-5 score. Fierce defending kept Esher at bay. Then disaster struck with Daniel Ivanov having to leave the field for a HIA. He was deemed not fit to return. Earlier in the season losing a player as influential as Dan would have made the boys heads drop, but on this occasion, the team rallied and with EJ Luteke in rumbustious form, he scored a hat-trick of tries in a blistering 5mins. With the boys thinking the game had been won and the score at 30-5, Esher grabbed two tries. Andy Aheto settled nerves and scored on the stroke of half time to make the score 35-15.

The second half however, was a reversal of the first. Esher stepped up and Streatham-Croydon switched off. In the first 8 minutes of the second half Esher scored three unanswered tries and suddenly it was a one try game. 35-30.
Then with only 7 minutes of the game remaining, having expended a lot of energy Esher throw a sloppy ball to the wing which was intercepted by Diran who ran in unopposed for his hat-trick. That try broke Esher’s hearts as Sam Kabia, Finlay McDermott, Joseph Gallon and Jamal Reid ran in four unanswered tries in the final 6 minutes to win the final 60-30.
Despite the attacking prowess of the boys, the basis for the victory was having a solid defence that defended aggressively.
With James Ward at full back, Esher’s attempt to drop bombs from a great height was neutralised by his safe hands and cover tackling. Seems he's been watching Simon Zebo!
Great tackling and defensive efforts from Dicken Mareematoo, Leo Mullings, Abhinav Menon, Fergus Brennan, Jashawn Blair, Ciaran Davis and Patrick Craig (who suffered a bloody nose for his defensive efforts), kept Esher at bay till the final whistle.
The game was played in great spirit and positive praise from Esher’s coaches rounded off a very good day.
A great way to finish the season!!