A long drive, but worth it!

The weather building up to the scouts scheduled trip to Shelford left us thinking it would be called off, however on the day it was blue sky and soft muddy pitches that welcomed us at Shelford Rugby Club in Cambridgeshire.

With Ely joining us for a friendly triangular tournament the 18 boys that made the journey got plenty of game time. With four pitches in action we were on for a good run-out for the two teams that we had. The boys made an impact straight away in both games, a strong persistent defence led to the Ely coach asking James if we fed our lads raw meat before a game!

Both teams played hard, with rolling subs to keep everyone busy, leading to no losses and only one draw in the last game. A fantastic result and a good reflection of the effort put in by the boys. With the small pitches that were provided, the games were won by awesome defensive line speed and off loads in the tackle that we have been working on in training. As always, as a coach, the best reward for us is seeing the boys taking something from training, putting it on the pitch and making it work.

A lot of good work was put in across the teams. Each player worthy of a mention ( a nice luxury for us coaches :-)) but a few to highlight would be; Thomas Bates as his work rate is relentless, Max Botterill is making excellent progress in the short time he has been with the squad, George Berrys dancing feet!, Jamie Hewitt for putting in some good tackles and Archie Edwards for his 2 intercepts and passing out of the tackle. Last but not least Liam Fowkes for committing to the many tackles he put in, keep it up Liam!

The player of the week this week went to Malachy Collins. Mal has found a new lease of life on the pitch, watching him in defence is like the start of the grand national with him straining the starting wire! His tackling is non stop, and his performance in attack is great to watch. He moves the ball, often setting up the try for his team mates rather than going for the line himself, which is a great skill to have at this age. This always catches the eye of the coaches. Well done Malachy.