U11's at Derby Minifest Report

Ilkeston under 11s played their final matches of the season at the local Derby Minifest. After the previous weekends performance it was unsure which team would attend but from the outset the coaches were determined to ensure that the players would provide their loyal followers with a display worthy of this seasons development.

The league that Ilkeston had been placed was steeped in quality with matches against Melbourne, Derby A and Paviors. This ensured a hard session was to prevail. The first match saw the young Elks playing Paviors. Previous meetings had been strong affairs with Ilkeston having the upper hand with recent results. The kick off immediately saw Ilkeston's dominance and whilst Paviors attempted to attack the pressure applied by centres Cameron Greenfield and Tom Caines ensured that they were always travelling backwards. The front row of Aidan Norris, Felix Rabusin and Connor Connelley worked as a tight unit in unison with Billy Derbyshire and Robbie Boddington and created many driving mauls which the opposition were unable to respond too. A reward of one of these mauls saw quick ball presented to scrum half Ben Middleton who provided Isaac Smith to provide a crash ball to Greenfield for him to cross the line. When Ilkeston received the kick off Norris immediately bound off up the pitch knocking players out of his way and when stopped immediately found his supporting forwards to further drive him on. This enabled Norris to score two immediate tries. Half Time Ilkeston 15 Paviors 0.
The back line of Zack Lebeter, Connor Corrigan and Joseph Doughty ensured that any ball despatched to them either through passes or opposition kicks was always returned with profit and ensured Ilkeston's dominance remained. Midway through the half Smith kicked long over the full backs head who in turn allowed the ball to bounce and didn't realise the stampeding Caines was arriving. Caines collected the loose ball to score. Ilkeston's forwards all through the game were a yard ahead of the opposition and won the game comfortably. Final score Ilkeston 20 Paviors 0.

The next games against Derby A and Melbourne were one sided affairs and even with the introduction of Liam Arnott-Clark, Sam Rose, Luke Moore, Alfie Cox and Jordan Pritchett to freshen up the positions Ilkeston never competed in the way they had in the first match. Final scores Ilkeston 0 Derby A 35, Ilkeston 0 Melbourne 30. These results ensured that Ilkeston would now be through to the Plate semi final rather than the cup competition.

Ilkeston were presented with Derby B in the semi final. Ilkeston needed to rally themselves for their biggest match of the season so far. The response of the young players was fantastic and immediately they returned to the form that had seen them devour Paviors in the first match. Whilst not so dominate as previous the defence absorbed all that Derby threw at them and a driving maul saw captain Boddington break off and score at the feet of the opposition. Half time approached with Ilkeston 5 Derby B 0.

Derby now threw the kitchen sink at Ilkeston and only last gasp tackles from all of the players and importantly Corrigan, Middleton, Lebeter and Doughty ensured that the Ilkeston line was unbreached. In the final couple of minutes Smith broke down the blind side from a scrum on the half way line, catching the Derby players unaware and like a blinkered racehorse broke the line to score and reward the Ilkeston players with a plate final match against the touring North Wales team Mold. Final score Ilkeston 10 Derby B 0.

The final was an extremely close affair. The size of the Mold forwards didn't intimidate the Ilkeston players in anyway however the speed that Mold presented and used the ball ensured that the Elks were on the back foot most of the game and only the appearance of hidden strength ensured that Mold only scored one try in the first half. Half time Ilkeston 0 Mold 5.

Second half mirrored the first and whilst Ilkeston's forwards competed and presented ball in set pieces and in particular the line-outs, they were unable to clear their lines. Stout tackling from all players ensured the game was always in the balance however time ran out and Ilkeston completed the long day as Runners up in the Plate competition. Final score Ilkeston 0 Mold 5.

On the whole the squad performed extremely well and only through allowing themselves to be intimidated by the opposition of Derby and Melbourne did marr a great day. It would have been just rewards for the seasons work if they had received some silverware but it ment we ended the season on a positive. The new season requires us to use this as a springboard and reward players, parents and coaches with some silverware next year. What is apparent is that the Ilkeston players are too nice and if they want to compete in the higher league of NLD in 2011/12 they need to identify ways to level the playing field against the bigger teams.

Team - Aidan Norris, Alfie Cox, Ben Middleton, Billy Derbyshire, Cameron Greenfield, Connor Corrigan, Connor Connelley, Felix Rabusin, Isaac Smith, Jordan Pritchett, Joseph Doughty, Liam Arnott-Clark, Luke Moore, Robbie Boddington, Sam Rose, Tom Caines and Zack Lebeter.

Man of the match forwards - Aidan Norris, backs - Cameron Greenfield

A great season with some strange results at times. Thanks to all the players who have contributed in every session, thank you to the parents for their support and contributions. These two aspects make the coaching of the boys a rewarding experience and we thank you.

Jon Doughty