The rugby weekend started early for the OG’s Under 11’s this week with an “Extra Special” Friday Night Lights match hosted by our good friends over at Harlow.

The event has been hyped up for the last few weeks including a full match program HERE and the night itself certainly did not disappoint.

OG’s were given the clubs visitors facilities to prepare themselves and get fired up before running out of the tunnel onto the pitch to 100’s of cheering parents and fans.

Our 14 players were spilt into two teams (bolstered by some Harlow loan outs) and each team played to 20-minute matches back-to-back.

The OG’s really came to life underneath the lights and both OG’s teams put on an absolutely fantastic display of rugby battling against an incredibly well-drilled and worthy opposition to come out on top in ALL FOUR matches. Each match was hard-fought and came to the wire…. but the kids played with passion, resilience and a huge dollop of flair keeping the spectators right on the edge of their seats.

It was a great experience for the kids, coaches and parents alike… we are hoping to make it an annual event between the two clubs!!

Massive thanks has to go out to the parents and supporters who braved the Friday night Easter holiday traffic to get the team there and huge thanks go out to our hosts Harlow for giving us the opportunity to play and support in such an inspirational and positive atmosphere.

The rugby was played in a fantastic spirit with sportsmanship and camaraderie both within our own teams and with the opposition both on and off the pitch. We can’t wait to go back!!

But the rugby fun did not stop there…

Sunday took U11’s to Woodford for a 3-way split fixture - OG’s / Woodford / OA’s:

With the loss of an hour’s sleep and the adrenaline from Friday Night a thing of the past we were preparing for a slow start from our boys… the sleepy warm-up made us question whether some of the team had in fact actually got out of bed yet …

HOWEVER, the first match against the first of two OA’s teams told a very different story … OG’s came out in full force and played their socks off against a very strong OA’s team. Fighting hard, we didn’t quite manage to come out on top at the final whistle, but to our pride, the OA’s coach made a point of letting us know that it was one of the best (and closest) matches they have had all season.

The next three matches saw OG’s go from strength to strength, we are particularly proud of the performance given by some of the less experienced / developing players who really took the opportunity to shine showing us exactly what they had to offer.

We may not have won every match this weekend, but what we did see was 100% energy and effort from all the kids accompanied by huge numbers of smiles and laughs from kids, coaches, supporters and parents alike.

We could not be prouder of the entire team!!