Chichester lads don't need luck at London Irish's home

They played sides from as far afield as Worcester and Maidenhead and got off to a flying start beating Oakmedians 6-0, a feat they repeated against Reading Abbey.

Matches against Oxford and Redingensians were harder but the Chichester boys won through. At the semi-final stage, Chichester faced Farnham in a tough match featuring bruising tackles and impressive running with the ball.

As the final whistle blew the score was still 0-0, but Chichester went through to the finals having scored 19 tries, more than any of the seven teams in their age group.

In the final against Maidenhead, who were also undefeated, the opposition put Chichester under tremendous pressure but the defence held firm and Chichester were awarded the win.

They had played some of the best teams in the region without a single try scored against them. The boys richly deserved the trophy awarded them at the Madejski Stadium during the half-time break in the Aviva Premiership match between Exeter Chiefs and London Irish.

To round off a fine weekend, the under-nines joined other Chichester age groups at the Horsham rugby festival.

They won their pool stage by beating Horsham Tigers, Hove, Worthing and Pulborough. In two matches, Chichester scored the maximum six tries, totalling 15 in the tournament with only one try conceded.

The strain of ten matches in the weekend began to show and Chichester were beaten 2-0 in their final by Horsham Lions.

This was a close-fought battle and the team could look at their silver medals with pride.