Sunday 26th March saw the U16`s 1XV take their unbeaten record down to Sevenoaks in the last round of the Kent league, for what on paper was destined to be their hardest test this season.
With both sides unbeaten in U16`s Kent league 1, and with Sevenoaks in first place by virtue of an additional bonus point, only a victory would ensure Sidcup would be crowned League champions. If that wasn’t a bigger enough incentive (some would say pressure), as the same 2 teams would also contest the Kent Cup final at the end of April, it was agreed with Kent RFU that, as the proposed Kent finals day was so close to the start of GCSE`s for this age group, we make this league decider also the Kent Cup final : It really was winner take all!

The short trip down to Sevenoaks was slightly quieter than usual and as it didn’t seem to have stopped raining for the previous 24 hours, it was with slight trepidation that we viewed the Sevenoaks first team pitch, which it must be said, save for a couple of small areas of standing water, was in pretty good shape, and certainly we felt it good enough to play on. Kick off was scheduled for 11.30 so with a 10 o’clock meet time, we had given ourselves plenty of time to open up the Sidcup Ministry of Sound, and get the place banging ! As our allocated dressing room was a touch snug for 21 players and coaches , as soon as Eminem paused for breath, the opportunity was taken to get the teas in, and as I walked past the vast, cavernous Sevenoaks dressing room, and into the stand, there were a few rumblings of discontent, at our music choices/volume…. 1 Nil to Sidcup!

Once the boys had changed and received their warm up schedule we went out, only to be met by the sight of the referee having a long hard look at the pitch, then walking over to the second team pitch, then back to the first team pitch, this was all a bit worrying and clearly our earlier optimism was under threat. There was a slight concern that the standing water potentially posed a drowning hazard, and despite one of our players vouching that all our team could swim, it fell on deaf ears (the earlier music volume may have had something to do with this) and the groundsman was called to see what could be done. After a frantic 15 minutes of sand barrowing and spreading, the pitch was declared safe and playable and our game faces were put firmly back on. The warmup went well and it was obvious that the boys were on it. Passes went to hand, moves were executed slickly, lineout drills went as planned, it felt like it would take a very good team to beat us.

Sevenoaks, are a very good team ! Over the past few seasons they have been our Achilles heel, deservedly getting the better of us on every meaningful occasion, indeed there were players in our team who had never beaten a Sevenoaks team, including when we played in tags, so there was never a danger that we would underestimate or not give them the respect that they, and their coaches deserved.
Warm up completed, we returned to our cosy dressing room, with the boys doing their last bit of prep and getting final instructions. With the rain finally subsiding we took to the field to be greeted by great Sidcup support comprising parents, grandparents, siblings, Sidcup club members, and a sprinkling of a few ex-players, all of which made a huge difference.

As both teams play fluid, running rugby, through both the backs and forwards, the conditions didn’t really suit either team, but it was Sevenoaks who totally dominated the early exchanges with the vast majority of possession and territory, a situation we helped them with, by failing to clear our lines on a number of occasions, but the meanest defence in the league held firm with the score still 0-0 after 15 minutes. It was testament to Sevenoaks dominance, when, in a very rare foray into the Sevenoaks half, we were awarded a kickable penalty and, for the first time this season, we went for the points rather than touch, with the attempt just going wide. This miss further galvanised Sevenoaks with the following 10 minutes seeing an even greater assault on our line, with the almost inevitable try coming after 30 minutes, with a pick and go from a metre or so, giving them a deserved score with the conversion attempt hitting the post : 5 – 0

Its cliché but conceding a score seemed to wake us up a bit and we started to get a bit more ball with a tap penalty following an early push in a scrum seeing our full back joining the attack and carving a line straight through the defence, only to be well tackled by the Sevenoaks full back, but the support got there, secured the ball, which was quickly moved left to expose a 3 on 1 overlap, and with the try line calling, in a successful attempt to shorten all the coaches and supporters life expectancies, we managed to drop the ball : No Comment !

Half time 5-0

As we gathered on the pitch for our half time get together, perhaps surprisingly the players were extremely positive, with a self-belief that belied the pressure they had been under. It was felt that we had taken all that could be thrown at us, weathered it, and left at least 10 points out there, the sooner the second half started the better as far as we were concerned. Sevenoaks had different ideas and as we, and the ref, waited….and waited…..and waited, we begin to worry that they had got lost in their changing room, still it gave us time to gather the boys again, whilst the ref went to fetch them.

The second half seemed to be the polar opposite to the first, with Sidcup taking the game to Sevenoaks and managing to put some decent passages of play together which after 12 minutes culminated in a break on the right hand side, with outside centre passing to inside centre who showed outstanding strength in running through one tackler, handed off another and then ran the try in, under the posts. There are no simple kicks in a final, let alone in a match that represents 2 x finals, but our kicker held his nerve to score: 5-7 to Sidcup.

The final minutes was a bit stop start, with a bit of pushing and shoving from both sides as tension rose, and the ref had to warn both captains, asking them to speak to their teams about maintaining discipline. There was a long delay whilst an injured player was dealt with (nothing too serious we understand), and all of these served to break up the continuity of both sides play. Sevenoaks had a good scoring opportunity late on when, from an attacking scrum in the 22 they got the ball wide but a good chop tackle from our last defender forced a knock on, which was fly hacked into the Sevenoaks half, but with our winger ahead of the foot race , the game was called back for the knock on , which felt slightly harsh. Shortly after, a penalty against Sevenoaks for not releasing in the tackle, was taken quickly, with a short tap followed by a huge boot into the crowd. This saw players and supporters begin to celebrate with players running onto the pitch, my first thought was what the bloody hell was going on, as we still had plenty of time left to play, but then realised that I had not restarted the timer following the injury stoppage: Silly sod !

As disappointed as they no doubt were, every Sevenoaks player and all the coaches were extremely gracious in defeat, and it could not have been easy watching our pitch celebrations. As they say winners want to do what loser don’t, but they waited patiently until we had all calmed down a bit and we lined up for the presentation.
Alan Erskine the Kent RFU Youth Chairman was good enough to attend the game and present the trophies which signaled more celebrations.

The match was generally played in good spirit, there were 2 yellow cards (1 for each side) not entirely sure what either were for, but neither appeared to be for violent conduct. As you would expect with teams at this level, there are plenty of players across the sides, who had played, or still play together in various talent pathway programmes, and found themselves opposing each other, and it was good to see and hear the banter before, during and after the game.
The Sidcup support was immense, and it was great to see many members of the U16`s squad who were not selected, come along and enjoy the day. Huge thanks to all those who came.
This game signals the end of the competitive season for the U16`s (15 aside format) and we end the season as both Kent 15`s and Kent 7`s champions, and we look forward to continue improving and growing as players and coaches, as we move into the U17`s

When all is said and done, the game on the 26th March was just 40 odd boys playing rugby on a wet and muddy pitch, and there are far more important things going on in the world, but for a couple of hours on last Sunday morning, it really didn’t feel like that, at all !