Teams 
This week we welcomed Tavistock for our opening match of the U10s season, in what was our first competitive match in almost 2 years and our first live match with contact. The nervousness and excitement in the changing room pre match reflected this!
We had the luxury of being able to field 2 sides with subs against a bigger Tavistock side.
In both matches, bravery, skill, and sportsmanship were there in abundance.
On Mark’s pitch, both teams tackled well in the defense but it was Bideford who managed to grind Tavistock down with some great runs out wide and some crash balls up the middle. The hot stepping and trickery from William Slee inflicted some early bruises to Tavistock alongside some hard tackling by the boy of steel William Harris and Henry Morris which managed to stop Tavistock on breaking through.
Henry Morris excelled through out the game with some brilliant jinking runs and tackling. Oliver Bloodworth provided some great support runs and created gaps from open play. Lottie Hill and Cole White showed some firece tackling and kept providing the ball out wide also jinking through the middle. Noah Fee, Jacob and Oli Rhodes enjoyed crashing the ball up gaining some good ground with Harry Phillips providing some quick ball out wide from the scrum half position
On Rich’s pitch, Oliver Rhodes set the tone with some dogged work in defence, ably supported by Matthew, Josh and the 2 Jack’s. Tackle of the day goes to Oliver Jackson who came out of nowhere to scythe down an elusive Tavy runner, who looked odds on for a certain try!
Going forward, Freddy, Albert, Taylor and Lottie looked strong with ball in hand, with a series of progressive carries and breaks.
For both sides, a very decent start to contact rugby, and despite the odd bump, bruise and little bit of blood, everyone left the field with a smile on their face wanting to come back for some more!
Thanks to the travelling Tavistock players and parents who drove the hour and bit to us and look forward to return fixture (lets hope it’s not raining this time!)
