What a phenomenal weekend of rugby across the club, starting bright and early on Sunday morning when our Senior Academy boys paid it forward by volunteering in various roles at the minis festival, truly showcasing the spirit of our one club ethos.

The wider weekend action kicked off with two of our Senior Academy boys stepping up to pull on the jersey for the 1XV and 2XV. Max J had a complete corker of a game, while Tom L showed off some serious positional versatility, moving away from his usual spot at hooker to feature out on the wing.

Then it was time for the Pinks to kick off their first league campaign of the season against Chobham. The traditional rivalry was fierce from the word go, and though the boys fought valiantly until the final whistle, they unfortunately came away with a narrow defeat.

Let us take you through the action. The match started under intense pressure when Joshua L received a yellow card around the twelfth minute, allowing Chobham to capitalise straight away with a converted try. The Pinks answered back brilliantly in the twenty-first minute as Owen C powered over following a neat assist from Matthew L, though the conversion narrowly missed. After Chobham slotted a penalty, Tom L struck back in the thirty-third minute with a fantastic try set up by Waisle S.

As we moved into the second half, the pace did not drop. Ashton L burst through to score another try for the Pinks in the forty-seventh minute, with Waisle S grabbing his second assist of the match. Chobham responded with two converted tries of their own, but the Pinks kept pushing right to the end. Following a yellow card for the visitors in the fifty-fifth minute, Tom L sealed his second try of the day in the fifty-sixth minute, which Owen C successfully converted.

It was a thrilling contest from start to finish. A special mention goes to Gabriel S, who earned the star player award for the Senior Academy Pinks after a stellar performance.