World Cup Festival at Ripon

Fresh on the back of the success of the Moortown Festival, the U9's entered two powerful teams in the Ripon World Cup Festival.

The Lions played as Wales in Pool 1 along with Ripon A, Wensleydale, Wetherby and York A. A tricky pool and the Lions recorded a very creditable two wins, one draw and a single defeat. Sadly, this was not enough to finish top of the Pool and Wensleydale (Ireland) went through to the World Cup Final and eventually ran out as the overall winners.

In Pool 2, the Tigers played as Argentina and produced some performances that real Pumas would have been proud of. Also in their pool were Ripon B, Selby, York B and Richmond. The Tigers won there first three matches and faced York B (Australia) in a winner takes all fixture to qualify for the final. In an extremely tight and exciting match, sadly the Aussies finally edged it 1:0.

As with last week there were some exceptional individual performances but more importantly, both teams played with outstanding committment, passion and good sportsmanship.

As always, special thanks also go to all the parents who added to the atmosphere and really got behind the boys urging them into every tackle and across every try line.

At home to Wetherby next week which will give us an opportunity to work on some areas like rucking.