First up in the Pool stages was Royston A's, who proved a tough opposition for us in our previous encounter where the game ended in a draw. The game was very tense and close fought once again, but tries from Matthew Rates, Joshua Staddon and Spike Howard secured a 15-10 win for Datch, and they were off to a flying start.

Next up were local rivals Welwyn A's in a repeat of previous derby encounters earlier in the season. Again it was a close run thing, with Welwyn taking two tries in the first half, but the boys dug deep and responded in kind with tries from William Field, Finlay Kelly and Jonathan Germanos to take the win 15-10 once again against our old foes.

Knowing we were now through the group stages didn't stop our boys wanting to take their third win of the day, this time against Fullerians A's. As Fullerians had lost some of their players the match was played with just 7 a side instead of the usual 8, but a brace of tries from the now fired up Isaac Byrne gave us the win 10-5, meaning we ended the group stage at the top!!!

Into the Quarter Finals, and we were up against a very strong squad from Hertford B's. It was a very tight game, with excellent defensive skills on show throughout from both teams. Eventually however, William Field gave us one of his trademark jinking runs to touch down for the only try of the game, giving us the win 5-0.

By now the boys were exhausted, but they dug deep once again heading into the Semi Finals against Chess Valley A's. The passing, rucking and flowing rugby on show from our lads was a joy to see, and they were really working as a team putting in some great defensive work once again. Tries from William Field, Joshua Staddon and Finlay Kelly once again continued our winning streak taking the win 15-5.

By now heading into our first ever Final, the Festival had thinned out dramatically and we had taken some injuries along the way so our squad was down by 2, and they were somewhat exhausted, somewhat bewildered maybe, but at the end of the day were fairly beaten by a great side in the form of Verulamians A's. They were very powerful and didn't allow us any space to run our usual game, and were eventually crowned winners with a 25-0 victory over our plucky lads.

Being Runners Up in the County Tournament coming 2nd out of 16 excellent teams from around the County is something to be HUGELY PROUD of, and even though we had some very sad and frustrated boys at the end of the Final game upset at losing their FIRST and ONLY game of the day, they should be applauded for the excellent result and spoilt rotten I reckon for the performances of their lives that they put in all day. EVERYONE played their part in this excellent result, and should be proud of their achievement.

GREAT JOB DATCHWORTH UNDER 10's!!!