A NEW TEAM TRAVEL TO RUSHDEN & HIGHAM

This week the squad was split, with a new team travelling East to take on R & H, and the rest developing their skills at home.

Match Report by Coach Marcus.
A squad of 12 of the NOSRFC under 10s, headed down the A45 for a fixture against Rushden. On arrival at Manor Fields, it became apparent that our choice to take a single team was justified. Rushden only had 12 players!! We agreed to play 3 matches of 10 mins each half, thus giving the children 1 hour playing time.
Match 1, saw a ding dong game with Scouts coming out winners 3-1. The main talking point of the match was Malachy Collins taking a massive hit, eight minutes into the second half. Claret (of the very finest Irish vintage) was dripping from his nose, but Mal shed no tears. He was stoic and solid, even though he knew it meant his morning of rugby was over.
Match 2 started poorly, with us going 3 - 0 down. However, the boys did not give in and battled back to a draw. The key take away from this game was created by Jamie Hewitt. A Scouts player was pinned on his try line and isolated. Jamie rushed in, rucked and secured the ball. One short pass down the blind side followed and Beau Steel ran the length of the pitch to score.
Match 3 started with great passing, with a beautiful line and offload to Jake Monk. We lost this one.....
All in all, a satisfying morning. Key take aways:
i) fewer tears when being bumped and banged (have they accepted the trials and tribulations of contact rugby.....; - )
ii). more work required on rucking and the coaches explaining to them when they can and can't "go for the ball".

Old Scouts Coach Ricky, agreed with every decision that the "outstanding referee Marcus" gave... NOT... but was a perfect example of how not to say anything!!!#biteyourtongue
Well done all!

At home the ever increasing squad had a morning of intensive drills. The coaches are trying to get the basic core skills of tackling, rucking and passing firmly established, whilst showing the kids some basic set piece plays. This is a work in progress! At this age it is a wide spectrum of ability and understanding, which is one of the joys (and challenges :-)) of coaching this age group. One of the biggest milestones is for the players to understand (not just nod when the coaches say) its a team sport, its not about how many tries you can score. As we have said to the players countless times, its not always the try scorer who is the star, more often its the player who MADE the try that shows true skill and spirit of the game.

This week we have yet another new player joined the squad and yet again that player shows real potential. Harry Wallinger has made an excellent start to what will hopefully be a long playing career at the Scouts. Harry was straight into the drills and had a good run out in the final match, one to watch (especially when when being photo-bombed by Kelvin??!!). Harry was this weeks player of the week.