Coach's update

A very wet report from Ed

I’ve just about dried out and made up with Emma after the state in which the car / Ben / me returned home in! My phone has completely given up but then it spent the session in a couple of centimetres of water in the bottom of my bag!

Quite a morning and one I hope we don’t have to repeat many more times this year. We had a fairly well thought through training plan to follow when we arrived but that seemed to go out of the window due to the conditions. It was very much a case of trying to do all we could to keep the kids moving so they wouldn’t catch a chill. It is a real challenge to get the kids to understand that the more they move, the less cold they’re likely to feel and although some of the kids seemed to revel in the adverse conditions, for others they just couldn’t seem to keep their minds off the weather.

Notwithstanding there was actually some fairly good rugby played on the main pitch and the ball was actually being moved around well. It took us a bit of time to get our physicality levels up but I think that’s understandable given the conditions and the standing start. I understand that the guys on the smaller pitch had a really great session and the feedback I received from Kelly was that their skill levels and reading of the game is rising quickly. Great stuff! Although we didn’t have trophies awarded today (we needed to get the kids warm and dry ASAP), special mention to Oshokha who I understand had a particularly good morning.

It’s days like today that I have to take my hat off to our coaching team. Although it can be very fulfilling working with the kids in our age group, on days like today it certainly challenges the motivational skills and yet, they still do it (in the main) with a smile on their faces – a huge thank you guys for all your efforts today and so far this season. Great work!