Festival Fun at Cockermouth

Following on from our recent excursion to Sedbergh, to take part in the Sedbergh School Festival, we took a much longer trip to Allerdale to take part in the U12 Festival that was being run to celebrate the RWC.

We took 18 players with us on the day, of which 3 were taking part in their first ever games of rugby. With us playing 12 a side this season, it meant that the coaches had to keep changing the team around, to make sure that everyone got as much game time as possible.

Game #1 was against Wigton and (astonishingly) Kendal were involved from the first whistle. For most of the game, it was a close affair, but at the final whislte, Kendal had come out on top. The key points of the game being that compared to Sedbergh, we had a lot more players 'switched on' and fewer passengerd. In a close game like this, it made a difference.

Game #2 was against Cockermouth and this was a bit more of a contrast in playing styles. Cockermouth preferring to pass the ball about freely and preferring guile, whereas Kendal kept the ball closer and seemed to play much more directly through teh middle of the pitch (except for 1 memorable passage of play when the players thought that they were Fiji and started a sweet handling move from behind their own try line).
Over the course of the game, Kendal scored more tries than Cockermouth, which means that we came out on top, but it was a closely run thing -- the differnce could have been as narrow as Kendal preventing Cockermoouth from grounding a ball over the try line, or Kendal just having a bit more oomph to get the ball down when the positions were reversed.

Game #3 was against Penrith and sadly for Kendal, Mr Switched Off was in full effect. By half time, Penrith had scored several tries to nil and the game was effectively over. Good news was just around the corner however and a different attitude from the Kendal players was on display. If we were well beaten in the first half, we were much more competitive in the second half and I had it down as a try a piece.

Silent Sunday is a RFU Initiative, where parents & coaches are encouraged to do nothing more than applaud good play by both teams and to avoid giving verbal support/instructions from the sidelines. The coaches get to say their piece ahead of the game, at half time and at the end - in theory. It was enormously encouraging to see (& hear) the Kendal players working things out for themselves, sorting it out themselves and discovering for themselves what worked (& just as importantly, what didn't work !!!). As an exercise, the Clubs that followed the Silent Sunday request will probably have found it to be a positive experience from the player and Coaches perspectice. We certainly did.

18 players went, all played, all had an enjoyable time and all improved their skills -- including the 3 that joined the Kendal U12 family for the first time.

& the sun shone all day.

Happy Times.

Paul