Minis win National Minis Festival
Our Minis have won the National Minis Festival 2024 (Landelijk Minis Festival) on Saturday March 16 in Amstelveen! Such an impressive achievement that they have all worked so hard for.
On Saturday our Warriors, coaches and parents travelled to Amstelveen to play off against the top 16 teams from across the country. In the first round they won all 3 of their matches which elevated them into the Group 1 Pool. They now had 3 more matches, to play against the remaining top 3 teams in the country that had all earned their spots to be there through the same process and were now playing off for positions 1-4. It was the most intense rugby they have played ever, against the strongest opponents they have ever faced. But the entire team lifted to the occasion, never giving up for a second. First they beat Eemland (who went on to take 2nd place) 1-0 in their narrowest win of the day. Next up was Amstelveen, a strong, proud and very established club where the Warriors won 2-0. Going into the last game against Utrecht, they needed a win or a draw to win the day. If they lost, Eemland would be champions. All the Eemland players and supporters were now on the sidelines cheering on Utrecht, hoping that would help them secure first place. At first it seemed to work as Utrecht scored in the first minute. The cheering got louder, but it seemed to have the opposite effect as our Warriors dug in and fought harder than ever coming back to win the final game 3-1 and claim the National Championship!
Landelijk Mini Festival (LMF)
The Landelijk Mini Festival (LMF) is an annual event that takes place over two weekends and includes the top 52 teams from across the Netherlands. The first weekend (two weeks ago) was the regional play off to determine who gets to go in to the national final. Our regional was held over two locations with 16 teams in each location. Only the top 2 teams from each location would earn a spot in the national final. On that day in Rotterdam our Warrior Minis won every game. Based on scores from across both locations they finished top of Zuid-West and earned their spot to play off for the National Championship.
Congratulations Minis, it’s great to see you get recognition for your efforts!
Report by Paulie Masters
Indeed, let me echo this excellent performance from our Minis during these 2 LMF events (qualifiers & final). Our players were very generous, committed to the games, to their teammates and played with a big heart. There are many things to highlight but just to name a few: solidarity and adaptability stood up across the games and got us to this National 1st place.
We are blessed to have many talented players in our group who are building game maturity while inspiring the more junior players. The energy from this International group is very high and the team dynamics fantastic. The hard work done on the core foundations during trainings is paying off but we need to continue the efforts to bring even more fluidity in our game to ultimately play our full potential at the opening of the tournaments season.
Let’s build on this success and look for new heights! Watch this group: it is just the beginning. Go Champions – Go Wassenaar Warriors Minis! (Laurent Minaud – Head Coach Minis)