After an early start and a slightly complex parking system, stepping off the buses into an amazing rugby facility was quite the experience. A sea of rugby pitches - would guess 10 full size and well over a thousand players made a real impression, and set the boys up for a great final challenge of the season. Though there was some disappointment not to draw any of the international teams, definitely had teams from a bit farther afield and learned some real lessons.

The boys started out a bit behind the eight ball - Hampstead 2 starting at 8 players and managing their first match by rolling in players from the other squad. It was a very tight game, but the breakdown let us down a little bit, and Old Grammarians probably edged it at the end. It was a very good wake up call though - blew away some of the cobwebs, and the boys really picked up for the second match against Ealing. The trail finders kindly leant the boys a teammate (who played very well) and managed to run out as winners in the end, with some great tries and more than anything a resilient defence.

Meanwhile Hampstead 1 had finally managed to get into the tournament (had drawn the short straw with a late start and then close paced games). The team started out with a bang, putting some great tries together, and though slightly drifted off the boil in the second half still won convincingly against Old Albanians.

Unfortunately at that point the injury bug started to bite, as the lack of subs and tiredness started to bite. Though some great tackling and last ditch defence kept it very close, Hampstead 2 was down to 7 players by the end of the match against Battersea Ironsides, while Hampstead 1 went through something similar against Chipstead. Looking at our walking wounded, at that point we had to unfortunately forfeit the last of Hampstead 2’s matches against Chess Valley. It was at that point we learned something about the boys though.

With two Hampstead 1 matches left, we pooled the teams and with 14 players standing the boys found a new depth. Back to back matches against Grasshoppers and Ealing were very tough, but the boys fought phenomenally. Everyone stepping up to make tackles, not letting heads drop after setbacks, and even putting together some of the best passing moves of the year. Keeping those two matches extremely close (at least with the other teams coaches genuinely not sure who edged them - though boys may have views) really taught us something about each and every one of them. From the courage to step in and stop a hard runner dead to that necessary to just keeping running at the heart of the opponents; from the fight to gang tackle someone over the try line and rip the ball away to that to pull off intricate passing when down a try with more than an hour’s play in their legs. As coaches, we’re all very proud of them - and we learnt more about them this weekend than in many of the easier matches. Next year, we’ll just have to live up to their standards.