Bolton U7’s and U8’s v Aldwinians 14th Feb 2010

On a fine valentine’s morning you could sense the love in the air, or was it Will’s socks! Anyhow another fine turnout with players aplenty and strength in depth. It was also pleasing to see so many other little one’s turning up to have a taster training session and hopefully sign up to the fun introduction to rugby called tag rugby. Many thanks to our Club Chairman Mark for taking the “freshers” under his belt and giving what looked like a most enjoyable session. Cheers bud. Hope to see you all next week.

So back to the games. Aldwinians turned up with plenty of players themselves so once again we had to spit down to 7/8’s and little ones.

7/8’s
What a fantastic game to watch! Bolton showed their strength in teamwork by playing some exceptional support rugby and superb defensive play. These days it is rare that we have to tell them how to line up in defence which is really pleasing to see. It was also good to see them talking to each other during the game, calling support or addressing defence. We haven’t coached that into them, they just seemed to have taken on responsibility during the game. Be proud of yourselves chaps, you are now a real team!!
So highlights of the game were plenty, and it is hard to single out certain individual achievements when there were so many positives throughout the game. Marcus produced probably his most complete game of the season barely missing a tag, and always strong in running with the ball, not sure about the “man and ball” action on the opposition’s biggest player, but accidental contact does happen occasionally in the game, it was accidental wasn’t it? Next year mate! Will gave us one of his trademark swivel hip tries, and was strong in defence and support as usual; he also scored using our long pass set move play which worked well today. Jacob is becoming one of our strongest direct runners, and the provider of our long pass ball which is starting to work well in attack. Kynan, always enthusiastic and full of energy, continues to get better each week, and it was pleasing to see Anthony working hard tagging well and giving us a couple of good direct runs. Jude captained the first game, and lead by example in his fine tagging, running and support play. James, as always the quiet one, still keeps tagging away, running hard and is improving each week, well played, once again! Johnny was as dependable as usual, always there in support and tagging well, unfortunately his knee started to hurt and sat out most of the second half. Hope it gets better quickly bud. Sam is turning out to be a proper live wire on the pitch, running hard and tagging hard too. Robert one of our new chaps was the surprise package of the day. He hasn’t played much, but I was left speechless on his two big runs during the game. On the first one he collected the ball and was off! Straight round the defence for a full pitch length try, Wow. He would have scored a second try with his next run had he not put a foot into touch. This was backed up with some sound defensive work and support play. For this performance Robert was deservedly awarded the player of the match, although all of the players gave great performances. Well played lads, be proud of how you all played today. It really is good to see the levels of skill and team work you all display.
As always this season, it was a pleasure to witness the rugby you play. Special thanks must also go to Sam’s dad for refereeing the game. Both myself and the Aldwinians coach thought you did an excellent job.

U7’s

It looked that the opposition were a lot bigger than our mini-mini’s with them having a couple of new 7/8 year olds playing. But, having talked with Ross it was clear that to a man (boy!) they stood up to the challenge and produced some top class tag rugby. As with the older ones the squad played as a team for each other and produced an excellent display. Special mention was given in the post-match debriefing session of Ben’s tries and tagging. Well played my friend, always great to watch you play. Player of the day was given to George for his excellent tagging and play in attack. Well done mate, very well deserved.

It was good to play against a team who have a similar philosophy to the game as Bolton, regarding how this game should be played, purely for the enjoyment of the children. Consequently, every player on both teams appeared to enjoy the experience and I’m sure are better players for it. Thanks to Aldwinians U8’s and U7’s coaches for making the morning.

So that’s another week gone and I’m still in awe at some of the play I see every week. Keep it up chaps, I think it’s training at home next week so we can fine tune those skills a little bit more, and have some fun as well. I look forward to seeing you all then, and always remember……

“WHO ARE WE?”………”BOLTON RUGBY!!”