This week we were visited at home by Barnet and Fullerians, which brought our total numbers up towards 60 players and 11 coaches. Fortunately, we were able to borrow the Under 8s’ area and set up an additional 3 pitches to accommodate all our visitors. We were also extremely lucky with the weather for this time of year (noting last week’s snowy adventures). After gathering everyone together, we organized a good warm up for all the players and then divided the players back out into age groups.

The Fullerians coaches led the entire training session for the Under 6s and must be congratulated on a splendid effort. Although the Under 6s had a complete mixture of players and only a few from Harrow, I was really pleased to see how inclusive the session was for all the teams and how well everyone developed throughout. It was a great experience for our players to be part of a wider group and they also benefitted from the opportunity to have a more even competition within their own age group. The Under 6’s used our 2 normal pitches to full effect with skills sessions, fast paced games and an awesome game of bulldog to finish.

For the Under 7s, we played on 3 pitches with a rotational sequence of games of around 7 minutes each way. There were 2 teams from each club and most of the teams played all teams from the other clubs. To make the sequence work, the 2 Harrow teams squared up in a mid-session grudge match that saw a mighty performance from all the players that finished all square. It was remarkable again how well the Harrow players work as a team and how often the Harrow tries involve every player on the team. During training this week, I had to take a step back from the direct coaching role to organize the timings, game rotations and monitor the excellent progress of both the age groups. As such, the Harrow teamwork was even more noticeable when compared to the solo effort of their competitors in attack. It should be noted too however that this was testament to how well organized both Barnet and Fullerians were in defence. We have all learnt a great deal this week from our fellow rugby competitors and yet again I am in awe of all the players’ commitment, determination and love for the game.

We finished another very good training session with a monster game of bulldog that was yet again well represented by the Harrow players and everyone can be really pleased with their efforts. Thank you for bringing trophies back because we were able to hand out a Player of the Week to Leo this week for a superb performance in attack and defence that was a vital part of the team’s success. We are away at Ruislip next week but it should be a fun day with the Grasshoppers joining us to make it another 3-team bumper training session. I hope to see you all there.

Johnny