Under 7’s

A cold wet Sunday morning at Biggleswade but nothing was going to stop the under 7 buzzards….. Following on from a great bucks festival the team grew to 9 and we were able to put out 2 teams…… The 6 from last week teaming up with new players who were yet to experience a match.
The U7’s warmed up and trained with fun and determination. Jasper, Loui, Emily and Iris making up one team applied what they had practiced by running forward, supporting the ball carrier and really good tagging. In fact their tagging was exemplary, getting back in to line and ready to tag again. With Iris winning player of the day.
The team made up of Nate, Sebi, James, Anthony and Zachary had some great running and tagging with everyone getting involved in supporting whoever had the ball to receive it after they were tagged. Also, by the end of the last game, everyone was getting back in a defensive line really quickly to be ready for the next attack. Anthony shone today and was praised by his team mates and won TREDS champion.
The Biggleswade Coach was very complimentary on their commitment, ability and behaviour. A whole team to be proud of.

Under 9’s

An early season visit to Biggleswade saw the U9s field two mixed ability teams. The weather might have been wet but the pitches were in great condition and the kids were enthusiastic to get stuck in. The question was could they continue their good form from the previous week at the Bucks Festival. The coaches needn’t have worried and for a change both Teams got off to strong starts with excellent tackling, some turnover tries and great teamwork. As each game progressed their confidence seemed to grow and so did their skill levels and enjoyment. Leighton Buzzard and Biggleswade seemed evenly matched and it is great to see both clubs fielding several girls in their squads. Both clubs showed strong development of their Mini teams as they start to get to grips with contact rugby. Despite the rain three matches a-piece were played, all closely contested, but all in the right spirit. The warming Hot Dogs provided at the end were very welcome, and we look forward to the return fixture at Wrights Meadow in February 2019.

Under 10’s

A large travelling contingent made the rain soaked journey from Leighton over to an even soggier Biggleswade this week.

The Leighton boys and girls were in good spirits and enjoyed a thorough warm up before some players volunteered to play in the mixed team due to the shortfall in Biggleswade’s numbers.

The game was physical in patches, however Leighton had the upper hand throughout with powerful running and resilient tackling helping to keep the tries racking up. The players are clearly understanding and embracing the new elements they have been introduced to this year -the need to support their teammates at the ruck as well as being prepared to make up the scrum safely.

Stand out players today were Oscar Allen (for seeing the bigger picture and holding his position), Josh Dunn (for fierce tackling) and Vaughan Hughes (for getting to the breakdown first every time).

Under 11’s

On a exceptionally wet Sunday morning LBRFC took two teams over to play away at BIggleswade. Whilst the weather was awful, thankfully the LBRFC performance brightened up the morning for coaches and parents!  We played three games against a good Biggleswade side playing very strongly in the first and third games and holding our own well in the second.

Once again we demonstrated some really strong running and tackling. The coaching team were particularly pleased to see some excellent turnovers in the ruck’s through good body positioning and strong driving. We also saw some excellent poaching by the scrum halves when defending the scrum which led to several turnovers.

Strong running from Kiki and Tristan was a regular theme throughout all the games, and i lost count of the number of massive tackles put in by Cormac and Alex. The last game saw strong runs for the line with Nicholas and Ed scoring tries.

However, this was really a team performance with everybody playing their part. Sebastian and Cameron tackled well and poached several opposition balls at the scrum, Arthur was strong through rucks & mauls and the tackle, and David popped up all over the pitch running hard and tackling strongly. Oliver and Zane put in some strong runs up the wings and and defended well. Harry and Todd both played strongly in defence never missing a tackle and making yards with ball in hand.

Great hospitality from Biggleswade. All players demonstrated the rugby values really well which meant that despite the weather we had a great morning of rugby.

Under 12’s

Last season when Buzzards travelled to Biggleswade we played in snow and sleet, our visit over this weekend saw us playing in persistent rain that simply did not fail to dampen the spirit of the U12s side from Buzzards who were in buoyant spirits throughout the day.

Following two recent tournaments in Northampton & Buckingham it feels like we have now properly started the season. Despite the poor weather everyone in attendance enjoyed a super morning of competitive rugby and another true squad performance by all the players. Thanks go to those boys who played for Biggleswade given their low numbers. The early exchanges were quite tight with a good level of intensity and tries scored by Lewis Jeans, Finlay Rodger, and Jack Charter, whilst Edward Halsey playing for Biggleswade, scored against his own team.

Confidence soon grew amongst the squad and the boys started pulling together some great running and passing moves with tries scored by Charlie Rumens, Sacha Page, Finlay Rodger and Jack Charter once again. Lewis Jeans ran in several tries with some intelligent inter-play with his team-mates. Inspired by coach Harry Charter, the boys started pulling off some well worked moves in the backs after the pack afforded them some front-foot ball. Ben Oakes went very close to scoring in the corner as did Will McAndrew who was agonisingly close to scoring his first try for Buzzards. The physicality displayed by the boys throughout the morning was excellent with Ben Rogers leading the defensive line time and time again ably supported by the likes of James Crook, Alex Cartwright and William Perkins. Billy Taylor played his first match for Buzzards and acquitted himself extremely well in difficult playing conditions.

Arguably, most pleasing aside from the standard of rugby, was the spirit and teamwork displayed by every Buzzards player today which bodes well for the coming weeks and months.

Many thanks to Biggleswade RFC for hosting once again.