London Scottish Under 7’s were fortunate to have three squads travelling to Wales for the Pencoed rugby tournament.
The weekend got off to a great start with a training session held on the beach followed by a game of touch between U7’s and U8’s coaches, each supported by parents and players.
Records will show a tremendous victory for the U7’s coaches side! Most of the children then took advantage of the “splash zone” swimming pool and slides facilities followed by social gatherings and early to bed ready for the next day.
A long day of rugby followed with teams playing between 6 and 8 matches, each of 10 minutes duration. Despite a gloomy weather forecast the sun shone all day and the children enjoyed playing in warm sunny weather.
All three squads made huge efforts which have made the whole club proud. Players learnt quickly through the day and built strength from experience in early matches against some extremely strong sides. We have rarely seen such good quality rugby played from all players on the team. Great participation from every member of each squad.
We were very pleased to see plenty passing, using all the payers in the squad which was encouraged by the rule new to us, 6 tags and turnover. Some really fabulous fast ball and creative play, looking for the gaps, picking a line and running like the wind!
On the defensive side we were very pleased to see teams better maintaining lines in later matches, nailing tags left and right, driving our opponents back well into their own half. On several occasions I saw our sides pushing the opponents with possession back into their own half before ball being turned over on the 6th tag. This left them in an very strong position to push through for a try which they achieved on many occasions.
Scottish squad 1 got through to the knock outs for the shield to meet the hosts, Pencoed RFC, in the final. A tense match throughout ending in a final score of 4:4. Both sides agreed to play on with the next try scored becoming the winners. Scottish won the toss to start play and after a battle seeing the ball being turned over 4 times, London Scottish U’7s made that final try clinching victory and lifting the shield.
All in all a fabulous weekend leaving the Under 7’s charged and excited about playing more and parents/coaches hugely proud of the children’s efforts and achievements.
Huge appreciation goes to Scott Gray for flawlessly organising the whole event. Brilliant from start to finish with excellent accommodation, perfect logistics and fantastic quality rugby.
