Countywide U9s Festival

On Sunday morning Taunton Thunders (U9s) hosted the Countywide U9s festival, with 18 teams from 12 clubs and more than 150 kids arriving at Veritas Park to take part in what proved to be an amazing day of rugby, fun and special guests! (Written by James Dean)

Following a nervous week of watching the rain fall, the hosts were incredibly relieved to be given the all clear to run the event and a massive thanks (as ever!) has to go to the ground staff for all of the tireless effort and craft that goes in to ensuring that events like this can go ahead and memories can be made!

The games commenced at 10am with 8 teams competing at all times and with 2 of those each round running out from the tunnel with music pumping and the crowd going wild - emulating their slightly larger counterparts in the Titans! The games were fiercely contested with strong runners, big tackles and even bigger smiles throughout!

Premiership Referee Tom Foley was the first special guest to arrive! After brushing up on the U9s laws (full contact tackles but no rucks, mauls, scrums or line outs) he took charge of a number of games, up until leaving to head up the road to fulfil his other officiating duties of the day with Bath v Exeter Chiefs at the Rec.

Next up was the Baby Rhino himself; England prop (and recent Captain) Ellis Genge!! Ellis arrived and settled straight in to his role as prize giver; standing for an hour in front of the Taunton tunnel handing out medals & autographs and posing for photos with every single one of the incredibly excited children (and many of the adults!) in attendance! It’s probably fair to say that the only person who could claim to have been busier was Titans regular Toby East, who was serving coffees to a never-ending queue of punters at his BarEASTa TukTuk!

As the day came to a close The TREDS trophy, sponsored by Taunton RFCs major sponsor British Gas, was awarded to Cheddar Rugby Club, who were adjudged to have best displayed rugby’s core values throughout the day (Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline, Sportsmanship), although as it was noted at the time, the award could really have gone to anyone of the teams present!

Well done to all of the players, coaches and referees and especially well done to the Thunders Parents who put in a huge shift and put on a great show to create a fantastic day for everyone present, one that was noted by Taunton Thunders player Jack Dean as being; 

“the best day of my whole rugby career…and the best bit was definitely getting my medal from Ellis Genge, that was awesome!"

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