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End of term report

End of term report

Ben Collins28 Dec 2013 - 11:45
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https://www.brightonblues.co.u

Really impressive progress in the first months of contact

It’s been a busy term of the Under 9s and really obvious progress has been made.

All the work done over the summer building up contact skills paid off with a bright early start and we returned with silverware from the Crawley Festival. Two evenly spread teams produced impressive wins over Eastbourne, Worthing, Horsham, Pulborough and Haywards Heath. We never quite worked out why we didn’t get medals, but 22 players got involved and had a great day out in the sunshine.

The following weekend saw some bruising encounters at the King’s Festival against some of the strongest teams in the region. Against some of the best-organised and most physical sides we will see this season, the players were unlucky to lose a compelling plate final 1-0.

The next big festival of the season was our own, and although a success for the club, the team had a much tougher day of it. Perhaps the boys had got over-confident after the early season success, perhaps it was the weather, but it was not a great day at the office for the U9s. What emerged, however, has impressed all who have seen the players. We have asked for more focus and discipline and we’ve had it in spades. The players are warming up properly, focussing in drills, listening to the coaches and best of all translating he work in training into matches. The rugby over the past few weeks has shown continuous improvement, with players working harder to realign and, best of all, finally starting to pass the ball into space rather than running head first into trouble. We have had a series of fixtures against Chichester, Worthing, Effingham, Pulborough and Heathfield and all the teams have gone from strength to strength. The players’ progress was marked by the Heathfield coaches’ telling us how impressed they were by our boys’ discipline – which is just what we asked for from them. They should pat themselves on the back.

One of the real features of this term has been the number of new players we have been lucky to acquire. Our squad is now up to about 30, and it’s been great to have Eliot, Frankie, Fred, Joe, Lawrie, Louis, Reuben, Stanley and Zak on board. In particular, the “Caged Tigers” have provided some of the highlights of the season – not least the splendid win over Heathfield before Christmas.

We’ve also had some top quality non-rugby-related fun at Blacklands Farm and the Brighton Bouldering Centre. And thanks are due also to the parents for their support, assistance – and willingness to stand in muddy fields in the rain…

There’s lots to look forward to for the rest of the season, with fixtures against Haywards Heath, Crowborough, Crawley, Horsham and Eastbourne; and a couple of festivals too. Well done to all the players for this term – we look forward to more fun, more tries and more wins in the new year!

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