THE trip to Bournemouth began early on the morning of Saturday April 18 and the team were warmly welcomed at Chard rugby club en route to the festival.

The stop at Chard included a game against their Under-9s. This turned out to be a game of three halves (!) which was easily won by Launceston. The boys scored ten tries including four for Toby May, two for Ben Jewell and one each for Luke Couch, Kyle Tozer, George Striplin and Joe Vanstone. The only try for Chard was actually scored by a Launceston lad, Charlie Nicholls, who was on loan to help them make up their numbers.

After a quiet evening in Bournemouth and an early night for the boys and their parents, honestly, it was an early start on a glorious Sunday for the festival itself.

Launceston were drawn in a group with Wimborne, Wootton Bassett, Eastleigh and Bournemouth. The first game was against the eventual group winners, Wimborne, who play in an almost identical, all black strip. Despite some great driving and strong tackling from the Cornish lads Wimborne ended the first half two tries to nil ahead. The second half was all Launceston and featured a bone-crunching tackle from Luke Couch. Unfortunately Launceston could not turn their possession into points and the game ended with a Wimborne win.

The second game was against Wootton Bassett and featured plenty of early pressure from Launceston, although it took a fantastic tackle from George Ellis to prevent a breakaway try for the opposition. Following a textbook lineout Cameron Lovell scored the first try for Launceston. Some rather un-gentlemanly play from Wootton Bassett led to Kyle Tozer having to go off injured just on half time. The second half saw one try each, the Launceston one coming from a fabulous piece of individual play from George Ellis. The game finished with Launceston taking all three points from a two try to one win.

Match three saw Launceston share the spoils with the host team, each scoring one try. This game featured a tremendous try saving tackle from Cameron Lovell, great rucking and ripping from the whole team which led to Harry Dawe's try and some wayward passing that led to the equalising try for Bournemouth.

The final group game was against Eastleigh and Launceston needed to win this one to ensure qualification for the knockout stages. A one-sided affair saw the boys cross the line six times with tries coming from Cameron Lovell, Joe Vanstone, Toby May, Luke Couch and two from Charlie Nicholls. This result meant that the boys finished their group in 2nd place, one place higher than last year's third, and took them into the Shield Semi-Final against Bridgend.

A tremendous game against the Welsh boys ended in a draw, four tries each. A try in the first minute from Ben Jewell set the scene for an end-to-end game. Bridgend equalised but a second from Ben Jewell gave Launceston the lead again before the Welsh lads equalised again. An outstanding try saving tackle from Luke Couch just yards from the line prevented Bridgend from ending the half in the lead. In the second half, three phases of excellent Launceston play led to a try from Ross Gorman. Poor tackling allowed Bridgend to equalise again before another superb move saw George Ellis score his second of the day. Despite valiant efforts the boys could not hold on to their lead and Bridgend equalised with only seconds left on the clock. Unfortunately this meant that Bridgend were to go through to the final as they had scored more tries in their group games.

Despite this disappointment the lads were not down-hearted and the whole team is to be congratulated for both a fantastic display of rugby and for the exemplary manner in which they represented the club.

Ben Jewell, Cameron Lovell, Charlie Nicholls, Flynn Robinson, George Ellis, George Striplin, Harry Dawe, Joe Vanstone, Kyle Tozer, Luke Couch, Luke Wickett, Marc Poad, Ross Gorman and Toby May.

l Launceston Under-7s won the shield at the Bournemouth Festival playing seven matches, winning six and losing one. A report will appear in next week's edition.