U9 - Kesteven put up a good challenge

Written by: Tim Hawley
Reviewed by: Lisa Henderson

We should have guessed that Kesteven would put up a strong challenge to our teams. In my usual rush to deliver 2 children pitch side in the right kit with all the right stuff before the 10:00 curfew I ran past what looked like a mini section of the England youth team all fired up doing well-drilled exercises in preparation for the big game. From this Kesteven put out 3 sides, which I think someone had said they had graded into their A, B and C team. As I was late to the match (watching my youngest play in the U6 rather than my poor time keeping) I asked how we were getting on and was met with the same response from most "strong side". I watched the middle of the 3 matches and after a short while could see the same. They were a well-practised side that put up a strong defense and equally strong attack. That is not to say we could not give back what they dished up but it was a side that forced us to put into practice the solid team work and discipline of run, pass, run, pass, run to give us a chance of putting one down across the line. Morgan's feet appeared to be blessed by Hermes himself as he managed to take some cracking runs down the pitch and rack up a number of tries in the game I saw and most of our tries were hard fought with a number of instances where we had to turn the ball over as we ran out of tackles. We saw great supporting play within the team and good coverage across the pitch to make it hard for any Kesteven players to make any breakout runs. In the end, I think the balance tipped in Kesteven's favour but for those who were watching the full game you might feel differently. In the end it is sides like this which give the team the best chance to learn and improve and put into practice all that the coaches spend their time and effort teaching. It will be an interesting one to watch next year...