New Season New rules – Tackling!!
It’s a big step up for the kids and the coaches, not knowing who and how each player will take to it, it’s quite a steep learning curve. The kids embraced it and took on board what we were teaching them. There will always be areas of hesitancy but the player’s willingness to listen, learn and grow as a team proved dividends culminating in our last game of this season.
The Beds Tournament at Biggleswade on Sunday 8th March.
Having had such an up and down season with the weather we were looking forward to the forecasted dry day of rugby ahead, however, when we arrived early on Sunday morning the wind was blowing a gale, which doesn’t bode well for rugby especially minis, knowing what the winds can do to behaviour!! We witnessed a gazebo take flight as well as kids and parents being blown in all directions!! However, the sun was out!!!
We managed to find a sunny corner set up camp, straight away getting into some warm-ups, the kids were very keen and eager to play as we haven’t had many opportunities – we had 28players in total.
With 2 teams entered we were split into 2 pools, A & B, pool A had 5 games – 5 mins per half and pool B who had 4 games of 7.5 mins per half.
We played against the following teams:
Ampthill
Bedford
Biggleswade
Dunstable
Luton
Stockwood Park
Right from the start the boys on both teams were on fire, they played with desire and focus, tackled hard, passed quickly and effectively, held their lines and worked as a team, they talked to each other offered support in their play and voice.
Every one of the boys came away having added something to the games, not just the confident players who work hard week after week but also the new members to the squad and the more reserved players, who wanted to stay on and show their skill, they cheered on their fellow teammates, they showed amazing resilience against some strong, powerful sides whom you would have thought we would have been beaten by.
The peak of the day being coaches from other clubs asking us what we had fed them for breakfast and what had we done to them to get them to play this way!!!
It was a fantastic day of rugby and it sums up the hard work, determination and that the kids and the coaches have put in all season.
Coaches and parents can see how every single player has developed all aspects of their game in terms of Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, and Discipline & Sportsmanship!
We are sad it has come to an abrupt end, especially with such lovely weather now, but we are all looking forward to getting back to training and some new skills to learn and develop the game we all love!