Teamwork Carries Loudoun U14s to National Youth Sevens
Teamwork Carries Loudoun U14s to National Youth Sevens
Teamwork was the engine for Loudoun’s U14 championship at the National 7s Youth Rugby Championships, a performance that was a testament to the fact this unity and togetherness always … always … matters.
This Loudoun team included two players who didn’t play with Loudoun during the regular season. Both had played with EIRA before and were certainly an injection of talent. But, said Coach Ken Fraine, nothing would have happened without the team players being familiar with each other.
“This is our second year at the tournament at this age grade,” said Fraine. “And the first time we knew what we needed to have to win. So having that experience from last year really helped. And a lot of our players came in with experience. But the thing is,, most of these guys have been playing since they were five or six years old. A lot of them spend the night at my house with my kids on a Saturday night. We have good team chemistry.”
And, crucially they had good chemistry among the coaches, not only Fraine and Steve Lough, but those that worked with the players but didn’t make the trip to Ohio.
“We have very smart players, and we knew what we wanted to do.”
They worked hard on their drift defense and set piece, and their defensive numbers were very impressive. They gave up two tries in their opener against Utah Elite, and both of those teams were a little cold coming out of the blocks. After that they gave up zero points in their next two pool games and also in the semifinal against Bethesda.
“What we did was, really, nothing fancy,” said Fraine. “We just took care of the things were needed to take care of. And any time we broke off from that and tried to play in an individual way, that was bad rugby.”
In the final, San Diego had got by Panther Rugby Academy in a close one, but any thought that the final would be straightforward for Loudoun was was quickly dispelled.
“We felt pretty confident after out first try and we felt we could take them out wide, but they were very good,” said Fraine. The big play was probably when scrumhalf Joey Ridolfi raced down the weak side for a 75-meter run.
“We had talked about looking for that opportunity, and really he only needed to do it once,” said Fraine. “Joey saw he had a step on them and he was gone.”
That made it 24-5 and Loudoun seemed to be in control.
However, now in a position to slow the game down and work the clock, the players got a little frantic. A quickly taken restart was taken incorrectly, giving San Diego a free kick at midfield, and they scored around the edge to make it 24-12.
A penalty against Loudoun off the restart was exacerbated when a Loudoun player prevented the quick tap, and was yellow carded. The Loudoun coaches had to be shaking their heads as they knew that all Loudoun had to do was defend with patient and they’d win the game. San Diego scored again quickly and now it was 24-19 with 30 seconds left.
Finally, for Loudoun, cooler heads prevailed, they kept the ball, and kicked to touch to end the game.
With Jack Fraine serving as captain and leading the way, Colton Tokarchic playing superbly at flyhalf, and combining with Ridolfi to make some crucial cover tackles, and with Robert Kellen powering through the middle on storming runs, Loudoun had the title.
“This was a fun experience,” said Coach Fraine. “And really how they worked together, especially on defense, was the key.”
