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Barnet Festival 01-10-17
Pat Halvey2 Oct 2017 - 18:53
What a great day with some true grit and determination shown by the team.
Well it was a proud day to be a member of the Harrow under 11s this week with a stunning performance at the Barnet festival. Although slightly short of numbers for 2 teams we entered 2 with the boys making up for the gap. This meant that for the whole morning there was always a Harrow under 11 team playing rugby.
After a quick warm up of passing and tackling drills we began our matches. The first match saw our usual sleepy start but by the second half you could see that the boys were starting to wake up and get into the flow of working together. The second match showed that the boys had been watching and learning with a quick start into try scoring and some aggressive tackling and rucking. The win saw the team increasing in confidence and understanding the benefits of working together with tactical play starting to show through. Although the next match wasnt won everyone agreed it was a fantastic performance with everyone playing really well together. The fourth match saw the team looking worried with one of the players looking taller than many of the parents watching. A reminder from the sideline that all ankles were the same size and some other words of encouragement saw the boys face into playing a team that were largely bigger than them. For those watching it was probably some of the best rugby we had seen with mental resilience and some fantastic tactical play leading to a first class win. Every ruck, tackle and kick was used to ensure that the try scorers were set up to get onto the touch line with every single player doing a fantastic job to make it happen. The penultimate match saw some fatigue starting to kick in but even the boys on the sidelines were shouting words of encouragement to keep going. The final match looked to be another loss but sheer will and determination kicked in and the boys pulled out the stops to get to a victory. Watching from the sidelines it would be unfair to pick out any one player's performance because every single person probably played the best rugby they had ever done. The most outstanding piece was how they came together as a team to become, in a number of matches, an unstoppable force. The coaches reminded the boys that the festival gave them an opportunity to see what needed to be worked on, with general fitness being one area, but they emphasised just how proud they had been on their performance.
After a quick warm up of passing and tackling drills we began our matches. The first match saw our usual sleepy start but by the second half you could see that the boys were starting to wake up and get into the flow of working together. The second match showed that the boys had been watching and learning with a quick start into try scoring and some aggressive tackling and rucking. The win saw the team increasing in confidence and understanding the benefits of working together with tactical play starting to show through. Although the next match wasnt won everyone agreed it was a fantastic performance with everyone playing really well together. The fourth match saw the team looking worried with one of the players looking taller than many of the parents watching. A reminder from the sideline that all ankles were the same size and some other words of encouragement saw the boys face into playing a team that were largely bigger than them. For those watching it was probably some of the best rugby we had seen with mental resilience and some fantastic tactical play leading to a first class win. Every ruck, tackle and kick was used to ensure that the try scorers were set up to get onto the touch line with every single player doing a fantastic job to make it happen. The penultimate match saw some fatigue starting to kick in but even the boys on the sidelines were shouting words of encouragement to keep going. The final match looked to be another loss but sheer will and determination kicked in and the boys pulled out the stops to get to a victory. Watching from the sidelines it would be unfair to pick out any one player's performance because every single person probably played the best rugby they had ever done. The most outstanding piece was how they came together as a team to become, in a number of matches, an unstoppable force. The coaches reminded the boys that the festival gave them an opportunity to see what needed to be worked on, with general fitness being one area, but they emphasised just how proud they had been on their performance.
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