Sub-13/15 JAGUARs - Youth Rugby Festival

Our sub-13/15 players combine with Galiza to compete at the Portugal Youth Rugby Festival. Read reports here.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Sub-15 Report by Lorne King

This weekend the Portugal Youth Rugby Festival took place at the university fields in Lisbon. Teams from all over Europe and as far a field as South Africa and the United States joined the best clubs in Portugal at this annual event.

The event provided another opportunity for the successful partnership of St. Julian's and Galiza rugby clubs to join together and play under the JAGUAR banner at sub-15 level.

Our first game on Saturday was against a team called Life Shakers. After a slow start, we found the next gear and won 22-0. As we were only in three team groups, our next game was crucial and it was against a strong English school called Ivybridge. The game was very tight and Ivybridge were ahead 5-0 deep in the second half. We were on the attack and allowed them to score a breakaway try which gave them the win. This meant we could no longer win the tournament, but we played one more game that day and won 19-12.

All this meant on Sunday the JAGUAR team would play for 9th-12th places. Our first game on Sunday was against an English team Papworth, who entered the field to one of their players playing bagpipes. Strange having the English play the bagpipes? The game was a bruising one. The boys just rushed things in attack and took the wrong options close to the line, losing the game 5-0. This left us with a game against Benfica who we beat comfortably 21-0 to take 11th place out of 24 teams.

There were some excellent performances from boys from both clubs, but especially from Tomás Silva who led the team superbly. From S.J.R.C., Alec Goold and Manuel Carneiro also had excellent tournaments, and António Miranda put in a flawless kicking performance. It was a really successful tournament and a great platform for our boys to continue the friendships between both clubs. We look forward to more games together. The other S.J.R.C. sub-15 players who participated were Bernardo Gomes, Rodrigo Soares, João Machado, Henri Maes, Zé Maria Novais, Matias van Zanten and Jordan Monaghan.

Sub-13 Report by Samy Djavidnia

A superb week-end of rugby, friendship and sun marked this year’s edition of the sub-13 Rugby Youth Festival which took place in Lisbon. A number of St. Julian’s sub-12 and sub-14 players joined forces with our sister club ERG Galiza to form a very competitive mini-JAGUAR team.

The first day saw the mini-JAGUARs play against Direito, ARS, Ericeirense and Sintrense. After a rather sleepy start against a tough and organised Direito side, the boys picked up the rhythm and produced 3 magnificent performances to finish the group in 2nd place. This gave us the opportunity to play for the top 8 spots in the tournament.

The mini-JAGUARs played the first quarter final of the day against a quality Spanish team from Valladolid. While we suffered from the usual early morning sluggish performance, the Spanish team proved too strong for us, as they went on to finish 2nd in the tournament. Unfortunately our heads dropped a little and we did not manage to play at our best against a determined Agronomia side.

However the boys managed to regain their focus for the last game, where they were confronted with a familiar battle against Cascais. The mini-JAGUARs played with lots of speed, energy and determination and convincingly won to finish the tournament in 7th place (out of a total of 20 teams). The boys ended the week-end on a deserved high, and the smiles on the mini-JAGUAR’s faces provided the fitting end to a lovely week-end of rugby and friendship.
A big thank you to ERG Galiza for inviting us to be part of this lovely event, and to the coaches Romulo, Junior and Lorne for their focus, attention and patience. The results on the pitch only proved the power of the community spirit existing between St. Julian’s Rugby Club and ERG Galiza, one which starts and flourishes from very early on in the sporting careers and social developments of these young boys.

The S.J.R.C. sub-13 players who participated were Rafael Braga, Leo Djavidnia, Theo Quay, Tom Hubert, Bernardo Leitão, Ollie van Zanten, Tomás Severino, and Diogo Alves.