10/11/19 - Mansfield (away)
Sun was shining!
On rememberance sunday our U7s behaved impeccably and I was very proud of their behaviour throughout the morning.
It's alot to expect this age group to follow a minutes silence, but they did and set a brilliant example - well done all!
After all the worries about floods and frozen pitches, it was nice to see them all out on the pitch (on a sunny morning) and enjoy some tag rugby.
I was really impressed how they got stuck into a warm up game of scarecrow tag, and then passing the ball around the circle and running - all without me having to get involved!
In terms of the games, we managed to have two matches playing at the same time, and although sunny it was cold but we got all the players involved as we had equal numbers to Mansfield.
I only managed to watch one match at a time ( I had to referee too) but got to see all the players getting involved.
We played 4 matches overall - 3 versus Mansfield and 1 that was a Panthers v Panthers match!
Special mention to Louis, who had to swap teams in the 2nd match, but did so without question - top attitude Louis!
What I liked - teamwork, lots of taking turns with runs from restarts and sharing; respect - no questions to the referee about decisions; enjoyment - plenty of smiles and happy looking players; discipline - particularly defensive shape and line getting organised; sportsmanship - shaking hands and passing tags back and playing the game. These things are rugby's core values - TREDS - I'll check in with all the players next weekend to see if they can remember them!
I saw lots of great tries scored and also plenty of support. We also got some great credit from the Mansfield coach for being sharp, quick to react and seize opportunity, winning most of the loose balls. There was plenty of great running and clear improvements in support play and positioning.
Next weekend we are playing games again, this time we have Sheffield coming to visit us at Dunston. Let's make sure and make them welcome and show them what we have learnt so far about rugby!
