Coaches report

Cold starts

Many thanks for braving the cold weather today. It was nice to remind ourselves what our club grounds look like and to do some training.

We were spending some time today on rucking. Ensuring the kids know why they ruck, to make sure they enter from the correct side and working with them on having the best body position. This is an area where we have been a little hesitant in recent matches but hopefully we can put what we have learnt today into a game next weekend.

In addition we worked on some passing exercises to get them to understand how they “fix” a defender and why they should be supporting with depth. I understand that the group on the far pitch (with Kelly, Russell et al) improved hugely after this exercise and their passing became a lot more crisp. As defences become a lot more aggressive, these are skills that are so important moving forward to help us break down teams.

A couple of items that I discussed with the kids during and after training that I would be grateful could be reiterated at home prior to next week and beyond.

Firstly it is never anyone’s intention to drop a pass or miss a tackle. We have had a few occasions recently when guys have had some criticism from team mates for making an error. I have spoken to the kids and reinforced the point that no one intentionally makes such mistakes and if anything they should be supported rather than criticised. We are looking to build a uniformed squad that will work hard together to get results.

Secondly there was quite a lot of fooling around today on the main pitch in parts today which was frustrating. The kids are coming each week to have fun but I hope are also coming to learn to become better rugby players. we can have one or two that can be a little silly but today it was quite widespread. Please could you speak to the kids to make sure they arrive over the next few weeks with the right attitude!

Notwithstanding I think we had a good session and if the kids can retain a fair bit of what we learnt today, we should have a good morning at Finchley next week.