Under 14s - Male (YR 9)
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Sun 08 Feb 2015
KESTEVEN
10:00
Newark RUFC
Under 14s - Male (YR 9)
Newark U9s Away v. Kesteven U9s

Newark U9s Away v. Kesteven U9s

Ann Gooden9 Feb 2015 - 11:59
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Fitness and strength-in-depth really shone through.

Despite a bright and sunny start to the day we arrived to find a slightly frozen pitch. Luckily this thawed out quickly and the pitches became progressively muddier throughout the morning. A positive warm-up woke up most of the boys and got them ready for a long morning of rugby.

Kesteven fielded 3 teams on 3 pitches and the 3 teams from Newark rotated through each pitch – giving all our players plenty of pitch time.

Coached by Jason and Johnny, THE RED TEAM (Alex G, Freddie, Elliot, Reuben, Munro, Cody, Matthew W, Oscar, Rudi and Tom) played some fantastic and imaginative rugby. In attack, the boys supported each other really well and managed some good team tries along with a couple of solo efforts.

The teamwork was excellent and the boys linked up well driving forward from the outset. In defence, the boys were superb. The tackling was immense, highlighted by a covering tackle from Freddie, which would have been more at home in a 6-Nations game, than on a U9 pitch near Grantham.

Overall, the boys played well and more importantly they played as a team.

THE YELLOW TEAM (Max, Henry B, Jack, Rufus, James, Monty, Harry, Harley, Alex F) played with great attacking play from the outset putting much pressure on the opposition forcing handling errors.

With three matches back to back the boys never tired and were committed with their tackling. There were moments when Kesteven were able to break through Yellow's defence so we still need to work on maintaining our defensive lines!

Nevertheless the boys were working hard in getting the ball away from the breakdown and we saw some excellent ball carrying creating many phases of attack and many tries. The coaches at Kesteven were highly complimentary about the high level of rugby played. Well done lads!

THE BLUE TEAM (Ted, Noah, Joe D, Matthew G, Blake, Dom, Alex T, Alexander, Henry M and Joshi) met Kesteven’s strongest team in their first game and struggled to get into their stride early on. Our defensive line lack coordination and we therefore conceded a number of tries before half time – with little opportunity to get on the scoreboard.

A half-time lift from the coaches, and much encouragement from parents, saw the Blues improve significantly in the second half which was much more even-sided. The level of communication went up and some solid tackling was put in. Confidence restored, the players were now ready to show their true ability.

The next two games saw the Blues in a completely different mind-set as they played with confidence and strength. The commitment shown in tackling was really impressive with Ted and Dom both putting in memorable tackles that won huge praise from the Kesteven coaches. We also made great use of the touchlines, driving the ball carrier in to touch to win turnovers.

Overall each individual player raised the bar on their personal development areas. All the boys showed loads of determination, courage and confidence – getting back up and in to the game even after heavy knocks. Smiles all around at the end of the session showed the squad were proud of what they had achieved. What was particularly great to see was how the teams supported each other equally well through setbacks, injuries and triumphs. That’s the real measure of teamwork.

The final comments from the Kesteven coaches were a real compliment. They highlighted our strength-in-depth and particularly commented on our lads level of fitness – which really told in the later games.

As always, matches highlight areas where there is room for improvement. Over the next few weeks we will be working on areas including:-

• Getting our defensive line to dominate early exchanges. In some cases we were slow off the starting blocks and allowed the opposition to gain confidence in attack.
• Re-shaping quickly from defensive line to attacking line on turnovers.
• Space awareness – avoiding bunching around the ball.
• Support play – we are blessed with some very talented attacking players but occasionally they make great distance only to find themselves with no support to offload the ball when finally tackled.
• Running lines – the ball sometimes still seems to contain a magnet that draws players to run sideways to the touchline where they are easily pushed out of play and concede turnovers.
• Moving the ball away quickly from the breakdown to exploit space – still a tendency to “grab and run” rather than pass the ball.
• Passing, passing and more passing. Core ball handling skills need to be worked on all the time.

The core values were on display in abundance from all of our players - Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship. The boys were a credit to themselves, their parents, the coaches and Newark RUFC.

Very difficult decision today! But a decision had to be made, Men of Steel were Elliot and Matthew W. Players of the Week were Henry B and Ethan.

Of note there was great support from the parents, who turned out in good numbers to cheer on Newark. Many thanks to Kesteven for putting on a great mini competition.

Written by: Jason Harrison, Johnny Wallace and Neil Walker
Verified by: Ian Gooden

Match details

Match date

Sun 08 Feb 2015

Kickoff

10:00

Meet time

10:00

Location

Instructions

U9s will be taking ALL available players to Kesteven. Please meet your coaches for this fixture there at 10am. Essentials: Newark Club Shirt and GUM SHIELD.
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