Saturday 16th April saw the KPMG Barbarians under 12s attend the last of this seasons Andalucian Rugby Federation concentrations of clubs held in Pueblo Nuevo de Guardiaro and hosted by our neighbouring club Estrecho.
After just returning from a weeks tour to the hot bed of English rugby in beautiful Bath the under 12s were ready to make their mark, taking a strong team up to the final tournament. Only 10 teams and not the accustomed 12 attended which meant there were two groups of 5 teams playing a round robin system. The Barbarians didn't have it easy with Marbella A, Malaga A, Estrecho and Portuense from Puerto Santa Maria in their group. To put this into perspective Gibraltar had never beaten any of these sides and Marbella A had beaten us 4-0 in our two meetings this year and Malaga A had beaten us 6-0 and 4-0 in our previous encounters.
First up were Portuense who we had never had the chance to play. We took the game to them from moment one. Our improvement over the season was there for all to see and some slick passing lead to an excellent team try right in the corner with great passing being shown by the whole team. The Barbarians had to soak up some pressure from Portuense's danger man who towered over everyone in the Barbarians team but we are no longer a team afraid to tackle and the opposition knew they were in for a fight no matter how big they were. The dogged defence paid off with more possession coming the Barbarians way which lead to to a second try. The game finished with the score 2-0 and the boys on cloud nine.
Next up were Malaga A. From moment one it was an evenly matched game with both defences proving their worth. However some strong play from the Barbarians piled on the pressure only to be relieved by some questionable refereeing decisions including allowing a dangerous high tackle. This lead to sustained pressure on the Barbarians line, which again after some decisions which dumb founded everyone watching, lead to the games only try. The Barbarians threw everything at Malaga but their defence stayed strong and it was not meant to be with the final score staying at 1-0 to Malaga.
The boys came off the pitch disappointed and frustrated as they felt they had not been beaten by the better team. This is a long way from the six nil massacre Malaga gave the Barbarians back in October.
Next came the formidable Marbella A. The Barbarians were now fired up and took the game to the opposition from the out set. The pressure told and the Barbarians took the lead. The game was then delayed for a while as Sebastian Headly for the Barbarians took a took a bad fall and injured his elbow requiring him to go for x-rays.
His team mates didn't let this affect them, quite the opposite it inspired them to play
Try time for Julian Lopez.
Player of the Tournament Giuseppe Plantone with another crushing tackle.
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