U9s impressing the opposition

Two evenly matched sides played some excellent rugby this morning. Our opponents are a team with good all round ability, some superb runners and are certainly keen to tackle. Those last two attributes tended to determine the way tries were scored by both sides.

The first of those, the very quick chaps they possess meant that most of their scores came from only one or two phases. The second, their tackling ability, meant that the Elks tries mostly came from 3, 4 or even 5 phases. That Ilkeston were able to maintain continuity of play was a key point for us in this early part of the season, so that we could still do what we were very good at last year and then build on the new aspects of the game. I have to admit that we (as coaches) were apprehensive about keeping hold of the ball in contact, such that we could recycle it with confidence. Yet, in reality, we know that these boys step up to the plate when we make demands of them and we hardly spilled any ball at all today, despite many ball carries by all the team.

There were many outstanding moments today for us. Olly and George fitted in brilliantly, you'd think as new lads they'd find it bewildering, but they were straight into the flow of contact rugby. Ethan just runs at gaps superbly and my favourite moments were Matt B's picking up of a loose ball (good refereeing there too) and scoring and Josh diving on another 'ball to be claimed'!!!!!! If you were to win a close match, it is turnovers like that which win the game for you!

Our hosts were particularly generous in praise of the boys and their Head Coach made sure he came over to relay that to the boys at the after match team summary.

All in all a superb example from two teams of roughly equal quality raising their games to provide excellent entertainment and playing top notch U9s rugby.