This season the Cumbrian clubs and the RFU have agreed to further develop girl’s rugby in the County, by running a series of development Festivals for under 13, under 15 and under 18 girls. It is planned to run 5 Festivals before Christmas and a similar number following Christmas. The idea is to allow clubs with smaller numbers to get their girls involved and playing, which we all fully support. Other clubs from outside the county will also be invited. Keswick were fantastic hosts for the first festival of our season, which featured Keswick, Penrith, Cockermouth, and Kirkby Lonsdale, Netherall, Annan, and ourselves. Most of the teams had only been back in training for around three weeks, and we are all in the process of welcoming new players in both of our age groups, which has been fantastic. Our under 13s have focussed on the principles of go forward and support, tackling safely, and communication. We took our Under 13 and Under 15 Girls teams to the festival:-

Squad
Under 13s – Emilie, Jess, Emma, Isabelle, Lucy, Imogen, Tara, Mia, Penny

Kendal’s 9 girls were joined by four girls from Cockermouth for our games, which were either 10 or 11 aside, with players being rotated throughout the games. We asked our girls to focus on the themes we had worked on but particularly going forward and support. Our first game was against a very competitive Netherall team, this was a close game, but the girls going forward very well, and were excellent in defence with some superb tackling by all of the girls, our new players Imogen and Isabelle, both doing really well. The girls narrowly won the match 3-2 with a late winning try from Emily. Debrief:-Girls Comments: - Good points Going forward, tackling/defence, and communication/leadership. Areas to improve support, particularly around rucking.
Our second game we played a very good Keswick team, who played some fantastic running rugby. The girls built on their solid start, and played some fantastic rugby on a very tight pitch. Again our defence, and tackling was phenomenal, from all of the girls, but in particular massive tackles from Emma in the defensive line which she continued throughout the festival. The work rate, was excellent, with the creativity of Jess a threat throughout, and strong support play from the rest of the girls. The team ran out winners, with the gazelle like Tara running in three fantastic trys having jinked and stepped her way to the try line, with Penny also storming over the try line, under heavy defensive pressure.
Debrief:- Girls comments:- Good points Going Forward, great defence and tackling, support and rucking much improved. Areas to improve: - More passing in the support play. The coaches set the team a challenge to support the development area – ‘Could they make three consecutive passes before scoring in the next game.’ The girls discussed amongst themselves how they could solve the problem……….

The next game was against Penrith, who again are developing into a very good competitive rugby team, and featured, like us a number of new players. This was a very close game, with our girls again moving forward and supporting very well, achieving their mission, playing some attacking rugby, succeeding in achieving the passing target. This was an exciting game, which ended in a 2-2 draw, and Tara scoring a late equalising try, following some fantastic flair play by our team.
Good Points: - Improved Support around rucking, passing, creativity, great communication Development: - team now very tired, but need to support runners.

We went into our final game, with a very tired group of girls, against Annan and Kirkby Lonsdale (all of the other teams had rested, but we had played our games back to back). Despite this the girls showed fantastic, grit, high work rate, and skill in their final game. The defence and support play was again excellent, and going forward we scored a great try through Tara. The team were narrowly beaten 2-1, conceding a late try.

Overall an excellent performance by the girls, particularly so early in the season, the coaches and parents were so impressed by high levels team work, work rate, how you all put into practice what we have been working on. Fantastic effort really well done.