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Under 14s Development Tens Festival
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| Lancashire's annual Under 14s Tens Festival giving players 'A Chance to Shine' |
"I've never won a rugby medal before!" was music to the ears of the organisers of the Lancashire Under 14s Development Tens, and 'development' was the overriding theme at Burnley Rugby Club's Holden Road ground on Sunday (24th February) when the East Lancashire club hosted the opening festival from Lancashire Rugby's calendar of Festivals & Finals.
An annual event, open to all ‘red rose’ junior age clubs, the day is designed to allow players who are not part of Lancashire’s representative County or District squads to display their talents in a less-pressured environment. Also given a chance to shine was a team of aspiring referees, either young match officials or new starters, all under the watchful eye of Referee Society advisors.
Burnley's team of administrators and club volunteers staged a memorable day for well over 160 youngsters and countless travelling spectators from clubs around the county.
The hosts, fielding a mixture of Under 13s and 14s, caught the eye with one of the best performances of the day, taking the lead against Preston Grasshoppers with a converted try. After narrowly losing their first game to Ormskirk, the Burnley youngsters employed some valiant defence against a wave of attacks from Hoppers who eventually clawed a try back, before Burnley lost to two late tries in a free-flowing match.
Waterloo ensured that they etched their name on the trophy for the first time, beating Rochdale in the final, who had pulled off an unexpected victory over Preston in the semi-finals. Rochdale had featured in what was thought to the the best match of the day, overcoming Liverpool Collegiate by a single-try-in-three battle which saw attack and defence at both ends of the ground during the earlier group stages.
Ormskirk finished the festival in 4th place whilst Liverpool Collegiate took the 5th place play off with a two-try win over Tyldesley.
Waterloo are the current holders of the Under 13s Junior Challenge Cup, and with players involved in the day's Under 14s match against North Wales at Wrexham, and others standing down because of their involvement with the Merseyside District side, the 'development' squad showed a strength in depth to prepare for the future.
