U8 Hornets v Fylde & Chester

This week the Under 8s travelled to the coast for fixtures against the host side Fylde, and touring side Chester.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't what was expected for a day at the seaside, so the factor 30 and sunglasses were swapped for thermals and hot chocolate!!

Calum, Emma, Eve, Thomas, Lucas, Chris, Max, Sam, Joseph, Jack, Frank, William, Matthew, Toby, Connor and Jake all threw the tag belts on and got ready for upcoming games.

The guys got split into 2 sides, one playing a Fylde side, the second playing a Chester side.

In the conditions some great rugby was played by all the players, on all sides.

Again the guys were working hard on using all the skills that we have been working on recently, passing, ideally before we were tagged, space awareness, running forward and straight, and also defending.

In both the early games, all of these skills were on show, and it was a real pleasure to watch.
Emma, Calum and Frank were running hard, Eve, Joseph and Jack were passing brilliantly, Matthew, Chris, Toby and Connor were brilliant in realising, and then communicating to their teammates about the space available on the pitch, Jake and Thomas scoring tries, and again Sammy Birch was fantastic in defence.

Max had a great day, and grew in confidence as the games progressed, showing some elusive running and some great passing.

A special mention to Thomas and Lucas who both picked up bumps early on, but despite this and the freezing conditions, they carried on which is a spirit they can be very proud of.

William was awarded the player of the day, this was only Williams second game but he was excellent, scoring tries, defending well, and overcoming a decent bang on the nose in the final game, thoroughly deserved, well done.

After 2 rounds of games, some players had succumbed to the cold and left for the day. The players that were left played a final game against a very strong Chester side, that played some very good rugby, and soundly beat the Kendal side

The coaches were left scratching their heads, trying to find out what was going wrong.

Was it the cold? Were Chester that much better than us?

On closer inspection, there were quite a few chocolate moustaches and ketchup smiles on cheeks, so we put it down to full tummies of Chips, Bacon and Sausage sarnies, and Hot Chocolates, and who could blame them, it was freezing.

What was good to here from a coaching point of view, was that after we had been beaten in the final fixture, the players themselves knew what had gone wrong, and knew what they had to do next time out to fix it.
Well done guys and proves that you are listening and learning.

Many thanks to everybody at Fylde, thanks to Kendal for organising the fixtures, a big thank you to all the parents for travelling and supporting, and a bigger thank you to the players who on wet, cold day were a pleasure to coach.

Have a good Easter everyone, see you all next time.