Squad for the day: Adriano Stephens, Alfred Ferris-Smith, Aris Hasani, Dylan Weeden, Edward Peck, Ethan Holden, Everett Chwieroth, Finley Eastwood, Gabriel Shoria-Dempsey, Gordon Thompson, Harry Bower-Taplin, Henry OBrien, James Ereku, Khazim Khalid, Logan Lindsay, Oscar Bocchetti, Owen Prosser, Rayyan Hameed, Sebi Salah, Shafi Khalid, Tony Elertaite.

This was to be the first outing of the season for the Old Grammarians U12s, following a rigorous recruitment programme during the summer which brought a few new faces to Green Dragon Lane.

The guests for today would be the local rivals Enfield Ignatians!

The exceptionally arid summer had so hardened the playing fields of north London that the RFU had delayed the start of contact training until only very recently, with some teams possibly having less time to practice the art of the tackle than others. It was slightly disappointing to the OGs squad, raring to put the hard work of the last few weeks into effect, to be informed – at the request of the visitors – that today’s match was to be limited to a type of touch game, the rules of which were explained at length before kick off.

The look of perplexion on the faces of the participants and Coaches alike didn’t bode well…

No need for worry though as the Enfield Head Coach kindly offered to ref the whole game to ensure that any confusion in: when a tackle was made; when a ruck commenced; what to do in a ruck and where offside lines lay, could easily be explained.

Enfield kicked off downhill and the bobbling ball was knocked forward in midfield to create the first scrum of the afternoon. Fed in by the Ignatian Scrum Half, it appeared from the sidelines that not only was pushing in the scrum not permitted (as is the case with the RFU Regulation 15 U12s’ laws) but neither was competing to hook the ball (which definitely IS!)

Ah well…

Ball emerged on the Ignatian side and was moved along the line. The touch tackling prevented much running through the centre so the most popular attacking option seemed to be to move it wide, go to ground, recycle in the ruck, then move it the other way.

Multiple Enfield phases made no ground and the eventual mis-handle in the backs offered up possession. Landing directly at the feet of recent acquisition Adriano, he gratefully gathered the bobbling oval and seared around the defence to the line.

The rest of the quarter produced some good straight runs from both sides, but a good degree (at least a 2:1) in confusion of what exactly constituted a tackle and what was permitted afterwards (whether to simply pass out of the touch; go to ground to set up the ruck) led to hesitancy and a stop-start game.

Both sides were equally guilty of picking the ball up from the deck in the ruck and whereas Enfield favoured runs up the middle close to the breakdown, the home side were more likely to pass to try to move the ball wide.

Logan, in receipt of such a pass, was unlucky to be caught by his opposite number wide right but set up the ruck to recycle. Scrum Half Owen, always in attendance, was quick to transfer the ball left again, where James in the Centre arced a run around the narrowed defence to score in the left corner.

Heading into the second half and with the competition for the hook in the scrum rightly re-instated, OGs were starting to gain confidence in their passing and taking the man on the outside.

A similar move passing through many pairs of dark blue hands saw Ethan zip up the right wing and when touched, go to ground to set up another quick ruck. A carbon-copy try for James ensued with him finishing in the same corner.

Both teams were making decent runs up the middle of the park but you could see the frustration growing as our big, powerful runners Everett and Tony had to stop on the “b” of the “bosh” they were relishing, halted by a weak “touch” which normally they would have run through without noticing.

Wresting possession from the opposition was becoming increasingly difficult for both teams as competition on the deck seemed outlawed, not a single jackal nor counter-ruck occurred throughout the whole match. The only way to win the ball back was to hopefully wait for a fumble.

Or push the ball-carrier into touch!

Unable to force the defence narrow, the wide players on both teams had no space to outflank the improving defensive lines and on one occasion Dylan ran round the defence but unfortunately into touch.

Keeping concentration was proving a challenge for all but, quickly adapting his natural rugby brain and ingenuity to the task, at the next possession, the mercurial blonde winger ran towards his opposite man, chipped over him and looped to retrieve!

Unfortunately, he was bustled off the re-gather to be denied the most audacious of tries.

In the last significant action of the match, OGs won a scrum in the Enfield half, which was moved left to Adriano standing in the Fly Half position. Dummying left, he switched direction to the right, shimmying through multiple potential touch-tacklers to then surge right to score in the corner.

Well done U12's!