‘Monsoon’ is word bandied around too freely these days, I feel. I wouldn’t have envisaged using it myself at all, ever, but I think I’m going to have to now. I’m not sure what a monsoon actually is but I’m pretty sure it involves a bucket-load of rain, so I suspect that anyone who ventured to the Moortown Acorn Tournament could empathise with my meteorological descriptor.

It did rain quite a lot.

And to be frank, I’m not sure how it happened. 24 hours earlier we’d been standing at the side of a rugby pitch just a few miles north of Moortown in glorious sunshine, eating pastries and chatting pleasantly about the late season migratory trends of the Canadian Black-necked Goose. There was no indication of the maelstrom that was about to befall us. Alright, so it was raining pretty steadily overnight, and when we set off for Moortown it was in, to say the least, heavy rain.

It’s safe to say that the tournament was played in dreadful weather – fast, persistent, soul-soaking rain. And then it got worse!

As the torrents swept down the field the parents were moved off the grass which at first I thought was to protect the pitch but then I realised it was to prevent the hapless folk from being sucked into a swampy morass, ne’er to be seen again. Still, you can count on rugby parents to be stalwarts, to stick it out and see it through. True, I’ve seen fewer brollies at a Mary Poppins convention, and the Estee Lauder looked more like camouflage paint, but these are doughty rugby supporters, they don’t let an autumn shower deter them!

So, respect to them and to the Moortown officials and volunteers, and even more respect to the mini players themselves; looks like we gotten ourselves a tournament.

The regular reader will be aware that insightful punditry is not a quality which could be attributed to this column. I really wanted to change that for this season, I wanted to rid these pages of irrelevant waffle and inform the avid rugby fan, scanning the weekly reports, of the technical and tactical fluctuations of each game. I spent the summer researching in depth: I read Dallaglio’s autobiography, Wilkinson’s, Johnson’s and Beckham’s. It didn’t work, I’m afraid; all their wisdom fell on stony ground. I tried, really I did. But I think I finally gave up when Coach Reynolds informed me, before the season started, that this year we would be playing with a No. 8. What? Last season we had 12 players, and this season we’ll be playing with a No. 8. Now I’m no mathematician; A Beautiful Mind was most certainly not based on me. For me, algebra is not as easy as a, b, c. But I do know that 12 comes after 8. So how does that work?

I give up. As you’ll no doubt detect after reading the first few sentences, I’m going to stick with waffle. It’s worked for me all my life so I’m not going to change it now. And anyway, if you want to know about rugby why not get that lazy gluteus maximus off the sofa and go watch the game!

But do not despair! Before you hit Ctrl, Alt and Delete and shutdown your laptop in disgust I will be inviting a whole range of guest reporters to pen these weekly prose and I’m fairly sure a couple of them at least will know more about rugby than I do.

The dearth of rugby-related content this week, however, is not due entirely to my lack of rugby acumen. No, today the torrid weather prevented me from making any real discernable notes. Every time I lowered my note pad to scribe something profound a deluge of droplets hit the page, blurring and distorting what would otherwise have made riveting reading. Oh sure, I brought an umbrella. I even brought the latest in umbrella holders, but she just wouldn’t keep still.

So, here in all its brevity, are the scant notes which describe Sandal Sharks’ successful start to their final year of mini rugby. And what a start it was. A debut at the Moortown Acorn Tournament for the Sharks, and despite Coach Reynolds’ assertions that the development of each of the players will be the focus of the season, it was clear that the boys could not play any other way but the way we have seen them do over the past five seasons – with passion, determination and a total conviction to win.

If the focus quite rightly is on development and the players can still win so well on their opening encounters it must leave the coaches, parents and players with grounds for great optimism for the season ahead...and indeed on into junior rugby.

Sandal Sharks 21 v 0 Otley

As well as the Sharks’ debuting at the tournament, Sandal had several new players on view today, as well as some lads who in comparison were old stagers, but actually only joined the club for the last couple of matches last season. They were, to a man, very impressive.

The game was fast – just 7 minutes per half, and the players played it at full tempo. As was to be expected in the conditions, there were more than the usual number of handling errors, but even so the quality was remarkably high.

Otley are a team with a deserved reputation for fine rugby and they certainly gave a good account of themselves. There was parity in the set pieces throughout the game, but apart from a brief period late on in the match the momentum was with Sandal as they pressed forward and pressured the Otley defensive line. To the onlooker it was not apparent that the Sharks had a number of inexperienced faces in the line-up as Billy Fawkes, CO, Will Kelly and Elliot Davey turned in accomplished performances.

Three tries in 14 minutes against a team of Otley’s capabilities is a good return. Harry Davey opened the Sharks’ account for the tournament and the season with a wide run which was just too pacey for the Otley backs.

In the second half, with all the elements in their favour, the Sharks pressurised Otley and tried to keep the game moving with strong rucking and quick recycles. Two further tries secured the game, and both came in similar fashion from some fine, disciplined rugby. A drive down the centre was rucked and shipped wide to winger Edge. His incisive run was halted 6 or 7 metres short but a quick recycle opened a gap in the line and centre, Chapman Smith, crossed. Two minutes later the try was replayed only this time it was hooker Drake who applied the coup de grace.

With Rowley kicking the conversions Sandal turned in a convincing 21 – 0 win.

Sandal Sharks 21 v 5 Moortown

The conditions were getting worse but the players showed great heart, and although the opening half was unsurprisingly a little scrappy the teams still produced a fine game of rugby. The cold and wet must have got to the Sharks, they were quite literally caught cold, as within a minute or so Moortown had taken the lead with a direct run through a gaping gap in the Sharks’ defence.

But Sandal bounced back midway through the half with Davey again providing the breakthrough after the team kept the ball alive through three phases, probing at the Moortown defence until Davey saw a gap and cut through to score.

Then it was the turn of prop, Matysiak, to take centre stage – literally – as he twice ploughed straight through the heart of the Moortown defence, firstly after Davey, Chapman Smith and Henshall had worked well to switch the ball to a waiting Matysiak, and then Fox, Davey and Chapman Smith recycled it to their formidable prop who was unstoppable from 10 metres out. The weather had not yet got to Rowley who again converted all the tries. With Oli Flowers and Harry Feeney making their debuts in this game and doing fine jobs, there was even more cause for even optimism in this 21 points to 5 success.

Sandal Sharks 24 v 0 Leodensians

Have I mentioned the monsoon? Well it was building up a head of steam by now.

But the Sharks were on a roll, so the last thing Leos needed was to gift any opportunities to Sandal. Alas, straight from the kick off the ball was seized by Matysiak who bulldozed down half the field and through half the defence.

A couple of minutes later the Sharks extended their lead when the forwards won a Leos’ scrum and Davey and Fox combined to find Chapman Smith who crossed well. And immediately from the restart the Sharks attacked through Kelly and Tovey, and ultimately Matysiak who again stormed over.

The second half was largely confined to exchanges in the midfield but it was illuminated by the Sharks final try, a great team effort, supporting the man with the ball, recycling quickly and finally opening a gap which Davey exploited to score.

A couple of missed conversions could be forgiven in the conditions but it still meant a substantial win.

After checking the playing surfaces in a coracle the Moortown officials decided that the tournament should be drawn to a close. There were few complaints.

With a 100% record and huge points difference the Sharks headed the group and lifted the trophy.

So it was a great start to the season, the monsoon season that is. And the rugby season got off to a good start too. New players slotting in well, experienced players switching positions, good skills on display throughout despite atrocious conditions, and of course that indomitable Sharks spirit all augur well for the development of the entire team in this crucial year.