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Mini/junior weekly roundup

Mini/junior weekly roundup

Caroline Burke2 Apr 2019 - 10:17
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Rugby Mum's rule!!

Mothering Sunday saw our Ilkeston mums doing what they do best, lining the touch lines of their super children (as after all rugby mums rule right!!). With another lovely sunny day ahead of us our teams hit the pitch’s, and here’s how they all got on….
U6’s a bright and sunny morning at the Stute saw 15 U6s turn out for training.
Passing, running, moving, and awareness were the focus in today’s session and with some new players joining us for the first time we made sure to revisit our core skills and of course the core TREDS values. U6’s have no training next week as the Festival is on but do come down to support the other teams and the club as a whole.
U7’sThe Sun was shining and the Mighty Elks and Mummy Elks were out in force with liquid refreshments and nibbles on the touch line.
A quick combined warm up with Matlock then it was on with the main event.
Matlock and Ilkeston had two sides both equally matched. Matlock started with a flourish of tries with some great passing. Ilkeston then responded with a few of our own. The tries kept on coming from both sides, but the most impressive aspect of play was the defensive line that Ilkeston held. Good communication and team play from both sides made this fixture a pleasure to referee. Looking forward to Ilkeston Festival next weekend when we Meet Matlock again on home turf.
U8’s made the trip to Matlock for a very even fixture. Two games saw a strong performance from two sides that both like to run with the ball and exploit whatever space is presented to them! It was great to see some of the players trying to move the ball a bit more and an improvement in support and positional play was clearly evident! Ilkeston's passing was particularly impressive at times as was the commitment to get back and defend. Special mentions to Zac who seemed to be everywhere taking tags, Logan who had an excellent performance having missed a few weeks due to his BMX commitments (third in the national championships is fairly impressive!!!) Jude who when he switches on continues to improve and be more dominant week on week, Imogen for a superb piece of play that saw her charge onto a pass and cut through the defence to score before they knew what was happening and Theo for yet again putting out an impressive all round performance! Players player was selected by Oliver today for the core value of discipline and he chose Logan for being disciplined with the officials (of course, we expect nothing less!) and for being disciplined in his approach to the game, getting back onside quickly and getting ready to start again quickly after scoring or conceding. Player of the day went to Oliver who, as well as selecting a worthy players player and presenting the trophy so eloquently, had a superb game with some excellent passing, lovely side stepping, a strong defensive performance and an excellent work rate throughout!
U9’s After some discussion about the pitch being rather hard and finding an alternative pitch the morning got under way with one pitch playing contact and one pitch playing touch due to the ground. Matlock came out of the blocks much better than us and scored a couple of good tries early on. They were snapping into tackles as well and had similar balance amongst their team as we did. They had some quick runners too and it made for a great game. The Elks came back into it as the game progressed and they subbed a few players in and out. It was a really even game which saw the Elks just to say edge it on (indicative) score in my view. 2nd match saw the teams swap across from the Touch pitch. Again, it was obvious both teams were very keen to get into a contact game. We showed our dominance in this game and the strength of our squad overall. Whilst, Matlock scored some super tries, we just powered through the midfield to score more. This weeks awards went to Reuben for being voted players player, Coaches player of the week went to Louis Harvey and the second Coaches player award went to Charlie Hunter.
U10’s Matlock a good competition between two good teams. Overall we were better in 3 matches and worse in one. Matlock played good passing rugby but our aggressive defence and better physicality won over. Some great support and passing from one of our teams was great to watch but Matlock came back strong in the last 2 games. Special mention to Nyal, Euan, Ozzie Oscar and new boy Charlie for great play. More work needed on breakdown and positional play
U11’s they had 2 teams to our 1, they decided to play a rolling 10 min game. Switching their team each time.
we played well with good movement of the ball. we rucked well.
Josh distinguish himself today with his work at the ruck.
Theo played the pass of the day for a player to run on to,to make a try.
our players battled well.
working well as a team.
well done lads
U12’s Newark again brought a large well drilled squad to the fixture. Our first two games against them were again humbling, mainly due to our poor defensive line speed, giving their runners too much space, which was effectively exploited by good passing. Conversely, both Newark teams had great line speed, cutting down our attacking space & pressurising our decision making. The boys never gave up and rallied well in the third game against Matlock, putting in a better defensive shift, and creating a good few team tries. Special mentions go to Sam Ford & Joe Finnemore for great decision making & creating tries, Henry Crocker for excellent clearing out at rucks and finally Alex Atkins for his all round display today with both strong tackling & direct running.
U13’s After a midweek cancellation by Meden Vale, the U13s welcomed a team from Nottingham Casuals. Casuals have suffered with reduced players recently, and consequently brought a mixed U14/U13 squad. The bigger lads in their team were a handful for our U13s, and again a few missed tackles were our main downfall. All of the team worked hard for the 50 minutes of the game, scrummaging well and defending tirelessly, eventually being rewarded with a powerful try by Louis Edwards just inside the right corner. The highlight of the game was welcoming three new players making their debuts for the Elks, Isaac, Daniel and Jack. All 3 fitted in well and contributed to the team, it’s great to have them on board.
U14’s Met with Derby this week however the match was called to an early finish, suffering from hard ground and some injuries.
U15’s travelled to Ashbourne but we were up against it from the very start because due to injuries, illness and few being hijacked due to Mother’s Day, we only had 13 players. Unfortunately, due to a slow start a very strong wind and some questionable decisions by officials, Ilkeston had a very tough first half, going into the break 22-0 down. But after a very positive team talk at half time, Ilkeston stormed into the second half. Ashbourne were unable to cope with Ilkeston’s ability to break the first tackle, teamed with good offloading and excellent execution in 3 on 2 situations. This meant, 20 min into the second half, Ilkeston had turned it around to lead 24-22, with 2 of the conversions being from the touch line. Unfortunately, after 55min of rugby and losing a player to injury, Ashbourne managed to find space on the outside, making full use of having a 25 man squad, and scored with only a few minutes left of the game. Unfortunately, that’s how the game finished, 29-24.
Overall though, Ilkeston played extremely well, and would have fully deserved the win that just alluded them.
What a lovely backdrop Matlock have at their ground and with the sun shining what a great way to spend a Sunday morning! Thankyou’s go to all of our hosts this week.
This Sunday see’s the Stute fill up with teams for our mini’s festival. This is a great event and takes a lot of planning and help from our great team and their volunteers so massive thank you to them. it’s shaping up to be an amazing day of rugby for both children and parents to enjoy.
If you have any questions about the festival please do speak to your coaches, if this is your first festival with us you will have a great time!
Until next week folks……
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