Alton stay undefeated at the Landrover Cup and grab third place after beating the hosts.

On a freezing cold January day, Alton U11s headed off to Reading Abbey RFC for the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup, hosted by London Irish.

The tournament had been postponed in December due to the snow and, with the temperatures plummeting to -10C, there were worries that the tournament may not go ahead. However, with a thirty minute delay to ensure that the pitches were sufficiently defrosted, we were all relieved that the tournament went ahead as planned.

15 teams took part in 3 pools of 5 teams. Alton played a tough Reading Abbey team, on their home ground, in the first match. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, Alton unlucky not to have grabbed the win after spending much of the second half camped on Abbey’s line. Credit should go to the outstanding Reading Abbey defensive effort.

The second match saw Alton shifting up a few gears in what was a superb team performance. Gosport and Fareham faced a fired-up Alton team, desperately disappointed by the draw in the first match. Alton were 4-1 winners, with prop Niall Fife scoring all of the sides tries. His swallow dive for the first of his tries was the highlight of the match (but must have hurt on the rock hard pitch!).

Next up were a challenging US Portsmouth team (Alton winning 2 tries to nil) and finally Tadley Tigers, with Alton claiming a second bonus point 4-1 victory.

With 16 points each, Reading Abbey and Alton were equal on points at the end of the pool games, but Reading Abbey topped the pool by scoring 12 tries to Alton’s 11!

As the 3rd placed pool winner (Reading Abbey) and the best pool runner up (Alton), the two teams played a re-match of their first game in the 3rd vs. 4th place play- off game. Alton won the match 2 tries to one, scoring a try from the first play of the match, and finishing the tournament a very creditable third (and undefeated!)

Following the tournament we watched London Irish comfortably win their LV= Cup game against Northampton at the Madjeski stadium.

Well done to the Alton Squad on a fantastic team performance:  Niall Fife, Harry Thomas, Matthew Pengilly, Edwyn Blackmore, Edward McKenzie, Oliver Burden, Daniel Androuliakos, Kieran Becker Davies, Victor Mills, Alfie Hellings, Jack Paine, William Chamberlain, Elliott Wall, Ned Dalton, Guy Thoma, Tye Rath, Billy Densham and Freddie Cousins.