On a breezy Sunday morning of February, London Scottish U9s hosted an informal and lively triangular with Ruislip and Ealing in Richmond.

This sort of session forms part of our regular season and is a good way to check the U9s progress vis a vis other established mini sections across London. There is plenty coming up in the next month or so including the Middlesex Festival, 5 Nations and the End of the Season tour.

The London Scottish U9 warriors made the most of playing against the 2 visiting clubs. Each club fielded 2 sides playing an impromptu round-robin series of matches. Tackling is the key skill to learn in this age group and while an increasing number of kids take up the challenge and make their father's proud watching on the side-lines, sometimes when tackling a much larger opponent some are less keen to do so and seem to follow mums’ advice not get too muddy their shining new London Scottish shirt.

Seriously though the overall performance of the U9s was brilliant with a clear improvement in team work, tackling, defensive lines and listening to the referee and the coaches. We had highs and we had lows. We won games, we drew some and we lost some and everyone went home cold and muddy but happy to have enjoyed another challenging and fun rugby tournament at Richmond. Some very fortunate U9s then headed off to enjoy a Sunday lunch in great Scottish tradition with haggis.