London Scottish Junior rugby has got off to a great start this season. A focus on player recruitment over the last six months has seen a steady influx of players to provide the boys with a better rugby experience. We’ve also brought on a cohort of new coaches to upskill the talented squads.
Sunday saw us welcome coaches Ntinga Mpiko and Paddy Jackson. Both Tinga and Paddy are involved with the LSFC Championship 1st XV and bring a professional edge to our coaching.
We started the session with a dynamic warm-up set up and run by our U14 S&C coach, Kash, followed by our weekly Bronco HIIT session that really tests the boys fitness and conditioning. It’s worth noting that there’s been an incredible strength build up across the squads over the last three months, thanks to the commitment by the boys, coaches (and parents) to attend our pre-season and midweek training sessions.
The core of Sunday’s training was joint skills sessions before splitting to focus on the ruck/breakdown. Tinga led the forwards session bringing new thinking and technique which has already elevated our contact play. He and Paddy then ran a scrummage session with the forwards of both age groups – re-introducing the core first principles of scrummaging and body position. As with all club rugby, at London Scottish Juniors, we teach proper scrummaging technique for both the players’ safety and effectiveness in match play. It’s integral that our Junior players learn how to bind correctly, angle their bodies, and drive through their legs to gain dominance over the opposition. Huge kudos to both Ntinga and Paddy for running this session.
Not to be outdone by our forwards, our back skill session was focussed on rapid movement of the ball and offload. Whilst repetitive, it’s a crucial skill for the Juniors to master early on several reasons: it develops muscle memory, improves ball-handling skills and rapid offload can disrupt the opposition’s defensive line, creating gaps and opportunities for teammates to exploit. Our U13 head coach, Kenny used these dynamic drills to develop a better understanding of when and where to offload.
Our U13 and U14 then split to play games to round off another cracking session at King’s House.
We’re always keen to welcome new players along to our U12, 13 and 14s. We train on a Wednesday evening (6.30-8pm) and a Sunday (U12 9.30-11.30, U13-14 11.30-13.30) at Kings House Sports Ground in Chiswick.
Interested in getting involved? Drop us a line at juniorsconvenor@londonscottish.com.
