The season began in our new home of King’s House School Sports Ground in Chiswick, an excellent facility. In spite of the move and coming off the back of two and a half seasons of COVID disruption, the Minis section crackled all season with great enthusiasm from playingers, coaches and parents. From the Mighty U6’s through to the U11’s our teams were frequently complimented by opposition coaches and referees on the quality of our play, in particular a cussedness in defence whether tagging (U6’s, U7’s and U8’s) or full contact (U9’s, U10’s and U11’s). Formal recognition was awarded to the whole squad when our section won the Values of Rugby Award at London Welsh’s Dragon Festival in March, where our U7’s and U9’s also won their year group trophies.
Our players supported both the Lions and our Senior Men’s teams with Guards of Honour at their matches and this is an initiative the section is keen to build on in the 2023/24 season. In addition to the Christmas Party and our End of Year Awards, the Minis staged an excellent end of season tour of Kent where 54 players gave an brilliant account of themselves and our club at Folkestone Rugby Club’s Mini’s Festival. We are grateful to Beyond Build (Beyond Build (beyond-build.uk )who sponsored the tourists.
In addition to our on-field heroics, the Minis held a fantastic fundraising Social during the year that brought our whole community together. We know we need more players; our parents, coaches and players are all working hard promoting the fantastic rugby programme we offer. Since the end of the season we have engaged with over two thousand families in Chiswick, Isleworth, Mortlake, Richmond, St Margarets and Twickenham to attract more players. With the support of the broader Rugby Scottish community we will establish ourselves as the leading Minis Section in South West London, delivering quality players for the Juniors and beyond.
Finally at the end of the 2022/23 season Kenny Baillie stood down from the role of Minis Convenor. Keeping our section connected and together during COVID was a tall order; moving the section across to Chiswick as well is a challenge few leaders could have mastered. We are indebted to Kenny for his leadership and providing a robust foundation from which we can build-up our section.
