March 7th 2015
U12’s Friendly Rugby – Gibraltar Falcons 10 V Marbella 60
A very strong Marbella under 12’s team visited Gibraltar on Saturday to take part in the Festival of Rugby. Although the result went in favour of Marbella, it was a great day for a very young Gibraltar Falcons side.
Twenty one players from schools years 5 and 6 took a massive step forward in their rugby development and although there was a substantial size difference between the teams the Gibraltar youngsters didn’t lack passion.
Marbella started quickly with 3 rapid try’s assisted by some questionable tackling from the home side, it took a quarter of the first half before the Falcons started to stand up to Marbella’s physical challenge. It was not all one way traffic though; a clever kick to the corner by Finlay Cawthorn was touched down by Cain Parody for Gibraltar’s first try.
This gave the team confidence and the Falcons fast rucking game kicked into gear with some strong runs from Christian Perez and Dino Charvetto. However, the size and experience of the Marbella team soon dominated the Falcons and the Marbella try count edged up.
In the second half the Clinton twins kept battling and showed their strength with a number of immense solo runs. The brave young year 5’s joined the battle and had their first taste of competitive rugby. All showed great heart and will definitely progress if they keep training hard.
The game was capped by a fantastic try by Cain Parody who received a slick pass from Guiseppe Plantone and weaved his way through 6 players before crossing the line.
A massive positive to take away from Saturday’s game is that the majority of the Falcons players will be in the same age category next year but with a lot more experience and confidence.
The next test for the Falcons is an International tournament on the 29th March in Marbella, where hopefully they can build on their potential.
The Falcons team, J Byrne, C Perez, M Ashwell, J Tunbridge, F Cawthorn, J Stobbe,
W Cruz, M Randall, G Plantone, J Coram, M Povedano, O Whitmore, S Hedley,
D Charvetto, F Kyne, J Clinton, K Clinton, I Lewis, W Martinez, C Parody and D Brink
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