With so many boys in the age group this season, a priority was to ensure we could find fixtures for three sides which we intend to run throughout the season. With the introduction of new rules including the ruck, maul and the scrummage, the month of September has been a challenging time bringing the boys up to speed. So last Sunday represented a great opportunity for the boys to see how they measured up against the competition.

The ‘A’ team visited Chichester with the intention of retaining the title won last year. Competition for places in this team has been fierce throughout September training so these boys were under no illusions that they needed to show the coaching team what they could do. The team did not disappoint sweeping all before them in the pool stages. They played four games against, Winchester, Crawley, Chichester and Pulborough in the pool stages winning all four comfortably. The running rugby, hard rucking and winning the ball at the breakdown was no match for the opposition. Heath met a feisty Hove side in the final and knew we needed to push the ball down the line to outsmart their physical game plan. Again the boys came up with the goods to retain the title with another comfortable win five tries to nil. Throughout the day our side scored 31 tries in five games and did not concede a single try. The team travel to Warlingham next Sunday for another festival of rugby and will be looking to build on a fantastic start to their season.
Team was: William Galbraith- Gibbons, Wilf Batham-Read, Toby Vander, George Melik, Bertie Bravo, Zac Palmer, Joshua Mann, Angus Tranter & Ashton Macleod.

The ‘B’ team visited Old Guildfordians
The team did extremely well having put into practice the areas the coaching staff had identified as needing improvement over the past weeks. Holding onto the ball in contact, ripping the ball from the opposition, counter rucking and moving forward in the defensive line were all much improved from past weeks and resulted in the team playing together as unit and defending well.
Four wins from four in the pool stages with hard fought wins against London Irish and Farnborough and slightly easier wins over Camberley and Old Guildfordians resulted in a final against local rivals Pulborough. This was a tough game for boys and a hard fought first half saw Heath leading 2 - 0 at half time. The second half was played in great spirit and much intensity resulting in Haywards Heath winning the title with a 3-1 win. This team can be rightly proud of such a great result and will travel to the Cranbrook Festival next Sunday in high spirits.
Team: Ollie Anderson, Rory Biggar, Seb Eaton, Sam Hind, Noah May, William Millard, Jacob Nimmo, William Nolan, Oliver Steel & Samuel Walker

Our Development team: visited Sutton & Epsom;
The development team is a new side that we are running this season with the intention of getting as much game time for those new to the game and those looking to show their credentials with a view to moving up the teams. The boys did not disappoint and put in a great performance under the guidance of new coaching team member Phil Herbert. Playing 4 games in the round robin Festival they came away with their heads held high having won 3 out of 4 games beating Guildford 2-0, Dorking 3-2 and Battersea Ironsiders 5-1 They came unstuck against the eventual festival winners going down 5-2 to a strong Sutton & Epsom side. The boys will take great pride in this result and will travel to Hastings next Sunday with the intention of putting another winning performance together.
Team: Doug Bain, Tom Barnard, Theo Brown, Fergus Collins, Laurence Gee, Flinn Herbert, Oliver Hilton, Oliver Moulton, Felix Richards, James Tighe, Joe Tighe, Joshua Webster.

All in all it was a fantastic day for Haywards Heath RFC Under 10s having played a total of 14 games and winning 13 of them and taking two festival titles along the way.