Excellent rugby and spirit from the U9s

I missed last week's match at Moderns, and by all accounts it was a super performance, with plenty of physicality mixed with our undoubted handling skills.

A couple of weeks ago at Casuals, Newark had provided us with our first real taste of plain old-fashioned hard running with the ball. Give to the big lad time and time again philosophy. We didn't cope with this too well and were well and truly thrown off our game. The following training session might have been an opportunity to work on that, but it became non-contact because of the pitch conditions. However, my experience is that when this sort of 'eye-opener' happens to lads who are very rugby savvy, as ours are, they go away and process it in their own time and ways and come back with a response. We as coaches had very little input into that, it's a testament to their maturity and all round rugby 'intelligence'.

Hence last week, and this week we saw a massive step up in the physical approach by the Elks U9s. The result at Keyworth was that all the boys racked up the work rate and commitment. Now we are seeing determined drives into the contact area, alongside the deft footwork of the flyers. The tackling was immense. To the fore here, I have to mention George and Rory, who have both suddenly grown in confidence..........and now 'express themselves' on the pitch.

Keyworth, were very able to respond in likewise manner and they were evenly matched opponents, another team to put on our 'well-worth' playing list as they have a similar healthy mix of player types and boys at different stages of development. Couple that with a supportive bunch of coaches and parents (as we have) and you have a good environment for positivity on the pitch for both teams.
In other words we all enjoyed a morning of superb rugby.