Up the big hill to Stow

Up the big hill to Stow on Sunday, misty and fresh up there but positively Barbadosian compared to our last visit a couple of years ago when the horizontal hail froze tears to cheeks and children to each other.

Bov and JB set expectations low, they play old rules up here lads (13 a side, 6 man competitive scrum and line-outs), we are not used to the rules so today is about having fun and trying something different, don't worry about the score. A line-out call was hastily devised - shout a word beginning with F for front, M for middle and B for back. The first call of 'photo' confused everyone.

Evesham quickly settled into what was a fantastic team performance, using the width of the pitch and plenty of hands, 10 tries scored by 8 individuals and Serge kicked 6 of his 10 attempts off the tee. Stow 3 tries and 2 converted in return. Nice to post a win but the score is irrelevant, the important thing is that the lads played both 30 minute halves as a real team effort, where tries were scored there were 2 or more available in support most times - there was a glorious try in the second half where the ball was won in a ruck by the forwards and it saw 5 sets of finger prints before crossing the line, genuine team try.

Try scorers listed below, as mentioned the last hand over the line could have been any of 3 players on most occasions which was impressive. In previous years a 10 try game would list the same 2 or 3 players, to have 8 cross the whitewash today talks to the breadth of the squad and shows that everything is going right.

JSD, Bretty, Serge, Slippery (2), Smiffy (2), Cake, Flying Fin, Indie

Another very encouraging sign was that substitutions did nothing to interrupt the rhythm or dilute the momentum, that talks to the depth of squad developing in the U12s. The lads all rucked really well, tackled as a line and backed each other – impossible to award Man of the Match or Tackle of the Match today, everyone won both.

It was a pleasure to welcome Rhino's grandfather Huw today, lovely fella, our Welshest supporter by some margin (he makes Geraint sound like Stephen Fry), who had crossed the Severn bridge for a warm up on English soil and watch some proper rugby. He has watched a game or two in his time and was very impressed with the lads.

A final compliment from the Stow coach – ‘Your lads are very well drilled, almost military’ (that will be Ed).

Thanks to Jilly Jones and The Fragrant Mrs Aris for the coaches coffee runs and 'A dad called Sarah' for volunteering for the kit wash without even being there herself.

Training on Wednesday, venue tbc.

JB