U9 Elks versus Burton RUFC

This weekend saw our schedule change from training into a match with Burton. We played them earlier on in the season and the squad that turned up on another tropical day at the Stute was unrecognisable. They really came and played this time and it was a joy to watch both teams going at it with full commitment. We had 2 pitches on the go as Burton brought a good number with them (16). It was evident from the start that Burton were much improved and credit to all the players and coaches for this. They had some excellent players who were strong in the tackle, they offloaded brilliantly and tried to move the ball around in the difficult wet conditions.They scored a number of good tries and a few where we missed our first tackles. However, our boys were magnificent again. Our line speed was phenomenal (despite one or two off-sides which we need to focus on next time we train) and lead to a number of interceptions as Burton tried to pass the ball out wide from the contact area. We were excellent at gaining back territory when the ball went backwards in the Burton half. We also managed to make more straight line runs into their defence which tied up half their team trying to take down our bigger boys. We always offloaded well in these instances which meant we had space on the wings to run into and score easily. It was end to end stuff for most of the games with our boys converting many more chances than the opposition. We managed to keep them at bay on our try line a number of times which was excellent to see. Again, the support from the parents (both teams) was brilliant. In keeping with what the club are trying to promote in the CARDS method of coaching I allowed the boys on the top pitch to have their own half team team talk which went surprisingly well considering i dropped it on them with minimal explanation. All the boys had something constructive to say which was brilliant and it was consistent. We will delve into this a bit more during next training. Player of the Day awards went to Liam for his general excellence and Caleb for much improved tackling, often being last man on the wing against bigger lads. Special note for Toby who played magnificently despite his poorly knee. I think we could all agree we have a fabulous group of players and an excellent support network of coaches and parents. Credit to you all, again. As we approach the end of our first season of contact we will start to look at the future U10's season where there will be a lot more to remember and new techniques to learn (we did have a little go at a rolling maul during this weekends match, though !!!) for rucking, mauling and the scrum. We will also continue to work on honing skills this year for tackling technique and general passing and handling skills....see you all next week....