WELLINGTON Under 13s have finished third of 12 teams taking part in the renowned Bournemouth Rugby Festival.

The first match was against Trojans from Southampton. With a 9:30am kick off Wellington took this game to wake up and lost 2 tries to nil. But there were some signs of what was to come including two superb turnovers by boy mountain Travis Gill.

Next up were Bridgend. A good try by Jayden Basson and then one from Will Case made it two nil before Bridgend hit back, only to then see Jayden race in from halfway to make it 3 – 1 to Wellington.

They then faced Battersea Ironside from London. Wellington raced into a 2 try lead with scores from Will C and Jayden. Brodie Smith then scored a great individual try using all his strength to drag a player twice his size over the line. Hunter Potimore then did exactly the same thing before Battersea hit back with a try. Tommy Milton then scored for Wellington before Battersea scored two late tries to make it 5-3.

The fourth match was against Oakmeadians who they beat 2 nil with tries form Archie Allder and Hunter. Aedan Mackenzie was also held up over the try line after a good run.

The last pool game was against Dorchester who, like Wellington, had only lost to Trojans. A win would put Wellington into the 3rd place playoff. Archie scored a try and then Dorchester hit back with one of their own. Great hands by Kingston Sharland put Aedan in for a try but another run from one of the big powerful Dorchester forwards levelled it at 2 all. Wellington then scored the best try of the day with Jayden running from his own try line, great support from Rex Eland recycled the ball and superb hands from Brodie Hancock and Will Sellick gained ground the ball was moved to Archie who scored a great team try.

A Dorchester player then broke free and looked certain to score but Tommy put in a great tackle to stop the try. But no one could stop them a few minutes later and the scores were level at 3 all. With seconds remaining Jayden broke free again and found Will C in support to score. Surely there couldn’t have been a better game played all weekend.

That is until the Welly boys next took the field. For their final game they faced Bournemouth in the 3rd place playoff. The Welly boys were now playing some of the best ever rugby. Wellington kicked off with Louie Bellemy putting in a great kick allowing Jayden to get underneath it. Jayden managed to rip it from the Bournemouth player and a few seconds later Will C was scoring another try.

Bournemouth hit back before Will C raced in from 60m. Bournemouth fought back again and it looked like the match would be drawn. But Hunter had other ideas. Seemingly held by at least 4 players he wriggled free and got got away a superb offload to Archie. He cut back inside with pace and power, beating 3 or 4 defenders before offloading to Will C who and seemingly raced clear. However, Bournemouth were also wanting to win this and a great cover tackle scragged Will. But somehow he got the ball to Tommy who raced clear for the winning try.