U13 Hornets
Matches
Sun 04 Sep 2016
Sunderssop Hornets
6
6
Kendal R.U.F.C.
U13 Hornets
Great start to U13 Junior Rugby at Sunderland

Great start to U13 Junior Rugby at Sunderland

Paul Keast4 Sep 2016 - 20:52
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https://www.kendalrugby.co.uk/

Friends Reunited, new friendships made

To celebrate the U13's start as Junior rugby players, we arranged a mini tour to Sunderland for us to shake out the Summer rugby rust and get our heads around the recently introduced U13 New Rules Of Play .

The first port of call was the pool at the Holiday Inn, where the players worked on their (inflateable) ball catching skills, synchronised (swimming) skills & practised having fun with their mates. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with their friends from Glossop who were staying at the same hotel with us.

Much to everyones shock and surprise, we woke to drizzly rain and the prospect of a wet and muddy rugby match. Happily, the weather improved and by the time we arrived at Sunderland, the sky was clear and the pitch was nicely softened up.

Prior to the games commencing, as had happened all across the North East this weekend, the players from all 3 teams held a minutes silence in respect of John Drummond, the Sunderland 1st Team player who had recently passed away after his short fight with cancer.

We then did a simple split, with Sunderland taking on Kendal & Glossop for 10 minutes whilst we got to grips with the New Rules, contested scrums and much bigger pitch.

The next step was to throw all of the players together, and then divide into forwards and backs and then further divide into front row, 2nd row, no8 etc and set up a structure in the backline. Once we'd done this, the Sunderssop Hornets vs Kenderland Gladiators game could start a proper.

What happened next was a delight to watch - the players passed, tackled, scrummaged, rucked, mauled and played the game as though a) they'd been teammates for years, b) they'd trained together for months and c) had been playing U13 NRoP as a group for ages.
The coaches worked with the players as if they were "their own" (one thing that was very noticeable was the coaches let the players play the game and work things out for themselves. Any help, input, thoughts advice was kept until half time - and the players responded in spades as they worked out what went well, what didn't go so well and how their game improved as they worked together).

This was also the first time we had contested scrums and for quite a number of players, the first time they'd played in the front/2nd row. Some players were keener than others, but at the conclusion of the fixture, a lot of doubts/fears/concerns had been overcome about playing in the front row.

Score wise ?? who knows ! noone was counting. Some of the tries were simple dots over the line, some were driving play from the forwards, some were intricate passing moves -- but all scorers had players congratulating them, from all 3 teams. The positive support and encouragement from the parents of all 3 clubs also added to the occassion.

There are multiple conclusions from this weekends trip, but they can be summarised as follows a) the players from Glossop, Sunderland & Kendal are a credit to themselves, their parents and their Clubs, b) the New Rules Of Play are helping to support younger players in their development, c) Barbarian games are good fun & d) we are ALL looking forward to chance to renewing our friendships with the players, parents & coaches from Glossop & Sunderland in the future.

Paul

p.s. all the players looked very sharp in theit shirt and club ties post match

Match details

Match date

Sun 04 Sep 2016

Kickoff

10:30

Meet time

10:00

Location

Attendance

36
Team overview
Further reading