Snow White and the 7 U13s

Not quite snow but it wasn't the warmest day at Pocklington for the U13s first taste of 7 a side rugby.

Disappointingly the U13s had to share the first team pitch with the U14s tournament so the boys played on less than half a pitch, with the touchline being brought in 5 meters from the posts and enough space around the half way line to separate the two 'half' pitches.

It was disappointing because Ripon fielded a squad full of pace, who on a full size pitch would have had the room to let loose.

Another shame was that one of the teams in Ripon's group failed to show so their first match was a bye, meaning a long wait around in the cold before getting on the field.

Ripon's second game (if you include the bye) was against a big Castleford team, who were suited to the small pitch and they caught Ripon cold to score two early tries.
Cole Potts was given a bit of space though and screeched down the pitch leaving the defence behind to pull one back for Ripon.
Evan Rees then scored to even the game up but a couple of missed tackles allowed Castleford to sneak ahead again.
With time running out Ripon applied the pressure and looked close to scoring through Hamish Mainey and Harry Allen but Castleford defence held firm. 15-10 to Castleford

Yarnbury were next (about an hour and a half later);
Ted Wainwright recovering from a nasty case of man flu felt well enough to open the scoring, closely followed by his second. Connor Stout made it three and Evan Rees was put in for number four by a good draw and pass from Oliver Williams. Some big tackles by Nathan Fraser and Michael Sorby kept Yarnbury down to one try. 20-5 to Ripon

This was enough to put Ripon through to the semis as runner up of the group, where they met York.
A good start from Ripon saw a try from Ted Wainwright and a long distance pure wingers try from Connor Stout, showing the sort of rugby we could have played on a full pitch.
Credit to York though - they dug deep and scored two back in the second half.
Full time 10-10

The rules of the competition said that a draw should be decided on try 'count back' from the group games however, with Ripon playing one game less this couldn't be done, so it was agreed to play 5 minutes sudden death then go to the coin toss.
The coin toss was narrowly avoided though by York breaking through after a very closely fought few minutes, to get the sudden death try.
York went on to win the final easily, so the lads should be proud of themselves!

Tries:
Ted Wainwright (3)
Evan Rees (2)
Connor Stout (2)
Cole Potts