Manchester RUFC’s barnstorming Under 9s side defended their title at the 2007 Manchester Mini Rugby Tournament on Sunday - and once again swept aside all comers, scoring fourteen tries in their first two games.

In the group stages, none of their opponents had an answer to the rollicking power, pace and guile of Luke James, Ollie Wright,  Myles Denham and Matthew Houghton, who all scored seemingly at will and tirelessly cut down opposition attacks.

Reluctant to leave it all to the cavalry however, Josh Jones and William Ogdon used their sharp rugby minds to slice huge openings into the defensive ranks for the hard running of Lewis Parker, Charlie Szpuner, Freddie Clarke and James Ediker to exploit - with Harry Darroch running the length of the field for one astonishing individual try in which it seemed he would eat his way to the line if he had to.

Despatching Warrington 4-2 in the Semi Final left  Manchester facing a forbidding and tough-tackling Widnes side to retain their trophy. However, retrieving quick ball from a scrum near the Manchester line, Josh Jones whipped the ball neatly to Toby Sinclair, who stepped inside his man and drilled a flat, wide pass to Luke James coming on at pace. Without breaking stride, Luke broke the line cleanly, swerved infield and covered another 40 metres before being hauled down by a desperate three-man tackle ten metres out, managing to pop a perfect pass up to a fast-pedalling Michael Elstone who arced round, inches from the fingers of  the scrambling defence to score.

For the rest of the game, no quarter was given, with attack after attack crashing on the rocks of either side. The final score of 1-0 against such a quality of opposition showed the character of this group of eight year olds who have only suffered one defeat in their three years together.

The tournament was sponsored by Guy Salmon Land Rover Stockport.