U10 Hornets - Character and Spirit by the bucketload

It was cold on Sunday morning and wet, really, really wet and the pitch was going to be muddy, very, very muddy. All good reasons to stay in bed and not venture outdoors.
Or, if you’re an U10 Hornet, time to get kitted up and head down to the Club to take on the days visitors, Tarleton.

Tarleton had brought 9 players with them and with 26 Hornets to face them, we decide to split the Hornets down to 3 equal ability teams and play 3 short games, with the other two Hornet teams training on an adjacent pitch and then swapping teams.

Tarleton claimed that they weren’t used to playing New Rules, but their performance in game 1 belied this ! They were a tight unit and quickly got the try count ticking in their favour. The Hornets are masters of learning by doing and slowly pulled themselves back into the game – but Tarleton had built up to large a lead and it was first blood to Tarleton. Tarleton were a lot more direct than us and rucked with greater purpose. Whereas we seemed to drive the ball onwards in a maul situation better.

Fresh from training on the adjacent pitch, The next Hornet team had gad a brief look at how Tartleton played and this was a much closer affair. By now hands were getting much colder and players were finding it easier to break tackles. We also got to see some nice handling moves (despite the horrible weather conditions) and we had a few instances of seeing the ball going from one side of the pitch to the other. I asked a few people for the score in this game and some said Kendal had nicked it by a try and others said Tarleton had taken it by a try. I’ll put my UN hat on and say that it was a draw. In this game, the tackling wasn’t to good, but allowing for the conditions, that maybe wasn’t a surprise. What was much better was the communication between the players, as well as the players organising themselves better on the pitch.

Game 3 saw the remaining players who hadn’t had a game yet, joined by a couple of players who fancied a second game.
From my POV, this was the game of the morning. With the ball in hand, the Hornets repeatedly took the ball forward, into space. Dodging and weaving came to the fore and we even saw a few sidesteps and dummies – a huge difference from a month ago, when the players seemed determined to run INTO opposition players. We also saw 3 tries that came as a direct result of offloads in the tackle – a great combination of communication, close support, awareness and teamwork. In this game, the Hornets came out on top by a few tries, so the mornings result is played 3, L1, D1, W1.

I could give a mention for everyone who took part this morning, but I’m going to pick 3. Tom N, is his first game as a Hornet was a revelation – always moving foreward and taking on the opposition. Max, again in his first game ran at a speed that didn’t seem possible in the mud & Lightning for the way that he organised the defence and led by example.

Finally, the game couldn’t have happened today without the active support of all the parents from both Clubs who brought their children to the Club today. Also, if it wasn’t for the generous support from Queen Katherine School, who allowed us to use their pitches, the 35 U10’s who played rugby this morning wouldn’t have had a usable pitch to use. Thanks QKS.

Next week sees us with a training session, followed by Davids presentation. It should be yet another morning to remember.

The Players Player Of The Week, as voted for on Teamer was The Terminator. Well done - have you managed to get your kit clean yet ?
Once again, we've got players getting nominated for the first time.

Paul