What a start for the U9s!

Wow! What can I say? How about starting with ‘played 9, won 6, drew 2, lost 1’.

The first competitive outing for the U9s since they started contact a month ago and, boy, did they deliver! Both Harrogate and Ripon fielded 3 mixed teams, ours each featuring some of our more seasoned players and some of the new starters this season, and happily everyone had a taste of success in the round-robin of matches. I can’t mention all the players by name as I was watching 3 matches simultaneously and didn’t see everyone’s moment of glory, but will name a few people I spotted doing something particularly notable.

It was fantastic to see the drills of the last 4 weeks all put into practice in what was, by and large, lovely open play with lots of passing and lots of looking for gaps and running forward – always forward.

Millie confused the opposition by giggling every time she was tackled. That’s not mentioned in the training manual so perplexed the boys somewhat. There was some very persistent tackling in all teams and both Eddie and Bakes need mentioning for being a couple of unstoppable tackle machines. A number of the players showed such determination and were not grounded when tackled but continued to make ground, skipping free of grabbing hands at their ankles (Tommy) or scrambling back to their feet and stretching to make the extra inches (Liam).

While Ripon sometimes grabbed the ball, particularly in turnover situations, and ran backwards, our teams were pressing relentlessly forward. I saw Will, Luca G and Wrighty spotting the gaps, however narrow and running forward, fast and straight.

There’s a lot to be said for being small and nippy - Will can be commended for a lot of zig zagging and side stepping to get past his opponents and Eddie was so quick with his tackles, he stopped them in their tracks.

The touchline seemed to have a certain magnetism to it and a number of our players strayed there a little too often, but when they realised this was an automatic turnover situation they started to steer clear. They did also use the touchline to advantage, wrestling Ripon into touch with some crunching tackles (Josh) as they strayed too near.

It was lovely to see the confidence the teams now have in passing the ball to make tries rather than running for individual glory (a perfect example in the first game with Bakes passing to Luca C to make a superb try).

I saw one or two slightly high tackles, but a half time pep-talk helped clean up that habit. It’s hard when you’re new to contact and when the players are such different sizes, but the mantra must be ‘keep it low - waists and legs, waists and legs’!

The teams clearly enjoyed themselves on Sunday in the sunshine and can look forward to a great future in the game. It's clear some of them are already planning ahead with a few tries being run in ‘under the posts’.

The whole squad can be rightly proud of a fantastic effort, great team play and mutual support. Bring on Pocklington next week.