U10 hard morning against Garstang

Today was a huge challenge, made even bigger by a misunderstanding by me. When the fixture was set up, I mistakenly thought that Garstang were a U10/U9 combined agegroup team, but at pitchside this morning, I found out that they were a U11/U10 combined team !

Fortunately, their coaches were amenable to being flexible and their players were keen to try a fixture, played in U10 New Rules.

What a difference an extra year makes ! From the off, the Garstang players were bigger, stronger and were more ‘savvy’. Within a short space of time, they’d crossed the line several times, with Kendal struggling to respond in kind. But heads never dropped and instead, the players started to look for ways around the larger and stronger players from Lancashire. At this point, up stepped The Beast, who started to take the ball towards the opposition and then revealed an offloading game that he’d previously kept well hidden ! This was the catalyst for a period of good play from the Hornets as quick recycling, combined with some crisp handling started stretching the Garstang defence and allowed Kendal to add a few scores of their own. On this occasion, it wasn’t enough to even the scores, and the game ended in a deserving 6-3 win to Garstang.

For the second game, several players who had been enjoying a skills session with David swapped with a few players from the first fixture and play recommenced.
Perhaps a few Hornets had a quiet word with themselves, as for this second game, several players seemed to really ‘up the ante’. The Rocks tackling rate seemed to increase by 100%, Ninja managed to rip the ball on quite a few occasions (this was especially well done when the mini maul was going backwards) and White Shadow really asked questions of the Garstang defenders, often needing two tacklers to bring him down and quite often managing an offload in the process. Viper was really effective today with his running and made a lot of yards progress. You’re getting the idea that this was a good TEAM performance and stronger, larger and well disciplined team from Garstang, and you’d be correct. At the end, Garstang were once again worthy winners, this time by 5 tries to 3.

The RFU claim that Minis players play rugby because a), they enjoy it, b) they are with their friends & c) they are learning new skills. From todays Training Fixture, I’d say that the RFU have got this absolutely right. Lots of smiles on and off the pitch, lots of rugby buddies having fun with each other and a lot of application put into playing an older and wise team. The result may show a loss, but the winner was once again Minis Rugby.

A big thank you to the players, parents and coaches from Garstang for their support of a mornings rugby, played under Rules that you aren’t used to playing. It takes two teams to form a good fixture and we had that today. See you at Garstang in February.

Paul

p.s. We didn’t tell our players that Garstang were an U11’s team until afterwards. The big smiles that they had got even bigger when they realised what they had achieved.