So the new year has brought with it a renewed vigour and determination within the U11 squad.
Our first home training session of the year last week showed that the players had taken on board much of what we had finished focussing on before he Christmas holidays- maybe watching Saracens had inspired them!
It was really good to see that the ruck was getting set up quickly and that the ball was getting played wide when needed.
Our player of the week was Cillian, right from the start of the session he had, to quote Pete “stepped up to the game” and continued to take on board the advice given and learn from mistakes. Well done

So yesterday saw a long drive up the A1 to Stevenage. Despite the bugs that have continued to plaque many of the squad over the last few weeks, we fielded 13 players which pretty much matched those of Stevenage.
Work on ruck positioning preceded the matches. Again it was about quick reactions but also about getting the right sized players in position. This meant the players communicating better with each other and also being more adaptive.
The games played against Stevenage ended up being pretty one sided, their squad was much less experienced despite having some quick players.
Harrow soon dominated and were much stronger in the ruck, the scrum and in their ability to get quick ball out to the wings where our players were allowed to run fairly freely and the try count quickly built up. That is not to say that all the try’s came from the wings. In the breakdown, strong rucking and the ability to pass when players had the option rather that when they had to, meant that many try’s were also scored through the centre.
It was really great to see all the players keen to get on the pitch and have game time, the rolling substitutions were regular and every played had an impact on the teams performance.
Some tackling was still a bit too high, and this meant that it took longer than it should to slow the opposition attack but more players were committing and this was a positive sign.
All in all a really great mornings rugby!
Picking out a player of the week was difficult as there were so many fantastic performances across the board. As with last week though, we are looking for those players that commit and are focussed and determined right from the minute they turn up to the session. Player of the week went to Daniel, ‘on it’ from the start he was rucking successfully against larger plates, tackling well and running fluidly with ball in hand. Well done.
Back home next week - looking forward to having the other players back from illness.
Thanks again for travelling all the way to Stevenage. I really enjoyed the morning and I’m sure you all did too.

Thanks
Mat