The emphasis of the Festival is on the fun aspects of playing rugby and after discussion and agreement with the CRFU Mini-Junior Committee we have decided to continue to run the U7s & U8s Festival on a “friendly” basis.

This effectively means that there will be no semi-final and finals and no outright winner of the pools or the competition. We wish all players, coaches and parents to benefit from having a fun day of rugby, without undue pressure, where all participants leave the tournament with a positive experience.

We will be running a number of rugby related competitions alongside the matches, which all teams can enter and for which there will be prizes awarded.

Schedule:

All timings are a guide only and may vary on the day.

10:00 Registration - All teams to gather and report for registration, with their ID cards. We will be checking ID cards for your benefit and giving advice where appropriate on Player Registration. As this County Festival is not being run as a competition – but as a Festival of Rugby, we will not be turning away any players who do not have the correct ID on the day. So please bring all your players to the Festival who wish to take part, irrespective of whether you have the correct paperwork for them. However, we are hoping to help teams sort out any problems, so that as they move up through the age grades into the competitive festivals they will arrive with the correct information in future.

10:30 Coaches Meeting - There will be a meeting of all coaches to explain the format of the day and answer any questions. We will present all teams with a program for the day showing the timings of their games and other events at this meeting.

Clubs are expected to provide a referee for each team entering and a schedule for the referees will be arranged at the coaches meeting.

10:50 Sport England - There will be a short presentation By Sport England of a cheque for £50,000 as part of the Inspired Facilities Grant Scheme, which will be used to help fund a new building at the club – “The Penryn RFC Learning Zone”.

11:00 Festival - The first games are due to start at 11:00 am. At present we are still awaiting to hear from two clubs - but already have entries from 14 for U7s and 16 for U8s. We will be running each age group in two or three pools and will provide a detailed schedule of each team’s matches on the day. We would expect to have around 5 or 6 matches for each team giving around an hour of rugby spread over the day. Our main aim will be to maximise the playing time for all participants, within the RFU guidelines.

Due to the number of participants there will be gaps between matches of 15 - 30 minutes on average, during this time we have arranged a series of 4 small competitions for the players to take part in as a team – involving passing and kicking of the rugby ball. There will be small prizes for the teams winning these extra events.

There will also be a number of off field activities such as a Bouncy Castle and Climbing Wall for children to amuse themselves between games and teams are welcome to use the 2nd and 3rd team pitches at the club to warm up and for their own activities.

3:00 Presentations - We will award all participants with a Certificate of Attendance and a Commemorative Medal, which is very generously being provided and presented by Trelawney’s Army, to remember the day.

We will be giving small prizes to each of the teams that have won our additional passing and kicking competitions.

Finishing times are liable to fluctuation – so please be prepared to stay a little later if required.

Food

A free lunch will be provided for all players, consisting of filled rolls, a piece of fruit, a drink, and other small items.

There will be the usual hot food and drinks available to purchase from the kitchen and BBQ all day. The bar will be open for the day (Rob & James).

Car Parking

The club car park is unlikely to be large enough to hold all the cars arriving at the event. As a result we have decided to reserve parking at the club for Coaches and Team Managers; who will have kit and equipment to take pitch side.
We have arranged with four local organisations to use their parking facilities to take the extra vehicles should they be required.

These are –
• Penryn College
• Penryn Athletic Football Club
• St Gluvias Cricket Club
• Rowes Bakers

We will be using the alternative car parking in the order shown above; as both Penryn College and Rowes are directly adjacent to the club - with no need to cross any roads.

Please tell parents to drive to the club as usual where they will be directed to the nearest available car parking by our stewards. Please do not arrive at the club before 9:30 am.

Weather
The long range forecast for Sunday is of changeable weather with a few showers – this may obviously change by the time of the event.

Please be prepared for a few showers – the clubhouse will be open to shelter in, but teams are welcome and encouraged to bring a gazebo and camping chairs to the event if they wish. There will be space around the pitch to erect these structures and they can provide a base for players and family during the day.

We would encourage players to bring a change of kit so that they can put dry clothing on if they get wet and protective clothing such as tracksuits and anoraks - as it can still get very cold at this time of year.

In the event of truly atrocious weather being forecast - there is a slim chance that we may have to decide to cancel the Festival - as we cannot allow children of this age to spend the whole day wet and cold. We would try to make this decision in good time to allow us to contact all teams and obviously all entry fees would be refunded.

Changing Rooms

Teams will not be given individual changing rooms – however changing rooms and showers at the club will be open and available for use by individuals and teams that want them.

First Aid

Teams should try to bring a qualified First Aider with them to the tournament – however we will have a number of our own First Aiders present for those that do not have their own.