Interest rates were clearly very high for this fixture, and for good reason. A large group of eager
young players arrived at the delightful Bank of England grounds bright and early, on a cold but crisp
Sunday morning. Bank’s numbers came in slightly below expectations, but what they lacked in
bodies they made up for in spirit. After a quick warm up session, alongside the U7s, we split into 3
teams and got stuck into some matches.

There was sterling defensive work from Arthur, who, to be Franc, was a tag machine. Elsewhere,
there were some excellent team tries. A particular highlight was a try finished off by Benji after a
great run and then offload from Ben down the line. There was also a great try from Charlie after
some impressive and intricate passing between team mates right in the try line.

Overall, I was very impressed by how well Hampstead played in their teams, and how much progress
has been made in terms of passing and awareness of space by this group. Full credit to the coaches
for the hard work over the hard winter months – it really is paying dividends.

Neil Pickard