Mini’s Piece (U11 update):
The London Scottish U11‘s enjoyed their first away training of the season at Teddington last weekend. Unlike this week, with very little rainfall prior to the fixture, the ground was pretty firm so both cubs adopted a non-contact approach and took the welcomed opportunity to practice kicking and scrummaging instead.
Our boys and girls were a great advert for London Scottish. They all mucked in with the Teddington kids and everybody gave it their all.
Teddington gave us a warm welcome and we’re all looking forward to repaying their hospitality when we host Teddington in a few weeks’ time.
Chris Pinney – Head Coach, U11’s
Junior Piece (U14 update):
On Sunday 15th September the London Scottish U14’s played their first friendly match of the season against Kilburn on a pitch kindly leant by Orleans Park School. This was a team we had played before so we were aware of their strengths and reliance on speed. We however are notorious for being slow starters and Kilburn took full advantage of this scoring the first try. It was a beautiful day though and as temperatures warmed up so did we with a display of suffocating tackling to leave no spaces for them to score. We went ahead at half time and from then on didn’t look back finishing with a win by two tries. Well done all, a fitting start to the season!
Kerry Eley – London Scottish, U14’s
Girl’s Piece:
London Scottish Girls Rugby started their season at the beginning of September. Having said farewell to players from last season that are moving onwards and upwards we have welcomed a group of new players both new to Scottish and also those moving up to junior girls rugby from minis. The focus to date has been on integration of payers and skills work.
U18 Girls also played their first match of the season against a strong Sudbury side. Played on a very hot day and missing a couple of players, so short of subs, the game was always going to be challenging. Having held our own in the first half, energy levels dropped in the second and the match ended with a convincing win for Sudbury.
Representatives of the Girls section attended Grey Court School Sportsfest on Saturday to run taster sessions on girls rugby for aspiring young sportswomen from the school. Another One Club rugby and community integration with further activity planned for the autumn.
Tim Lawn – London Scottish, Girl’s Rugby Head Coach (U11 – U18)
Touch Piece:
September is traditionally the End-of-Season for touch rugby but not at London Scottish. We will continue to play social touch on Monday nights from 7pm to 8:30pm at Richmond Athletics Ground under the floodlights come rain or shine. Existing members from 15 years up play for free and we have an annual Touch Membership for those not needing the frills, thrills and privileges that come with full club membership. We offer an opportunity to maintain your fitness and your ball handling skills without the knocks but it also teaches great positional play if you still play full contact.
The last season has seen great success for the touch arm of the club. Over the summer we had sessions with over 50 players taking part on the Old Deer Park pitches, with several of the mini’s team players learning the game and taking part. LSFC has also seen success at the national and international level, with three players playing for the South East of England at the Adult and Masters level in Cambridge and Nottingham National competitions, respectively. Two of our younger players also played for England U18 teams at the recent European Junior Rugby Championships in Paris. Harry Hardman was playing for the U18 Boys and Frey Auken for the U18 Girls. Both teams won gold without conceding a single game during the championships. We our now looking for our next set of junior champions so please think about getting involved.
Tim Hardman – Touch Rugby Convener
Community Piece:
The London Scottish Community programme has visited a number of local schools this week. Sessions have taken place in five local schools and have been delivered by both London Scottish Community Coaches and Professional Players.
Josh Barton, Xavier Valentine and Charlie Gowling helped deliver sessions at primary and secondary schools alike and all seem to have made a huge impact with their presence in the community.
Barton, who led a session at Malden Manor Primary School this week said “despite the bad weather it was great to see so many kids out and wanting to play rugby. They had great energy and had a hard working attitude which made coaching them a whole lot easier.”
The London Scottish community team continue to work hard both on and off the field and with a number of new sessions starting next week it will be all hands on deck once more and for the duration of the season.
Ross Peacock – Rugby Director
London Scottish U18s Piece:
Newly promoted London Scottish U18’s got their first game in their new league off to a perfect start with a four try bonus point victory away at Old Albanians. Playing in front of a crowd that had the option to watch the RWC on TV, or the live rugby on the field, most opted for the live rugby as Scottish started to put together some of the form they ended the season with last year. The forwards were dominant at the scrums, and often knicked the lineout as well, giving the backs a great platform to work from and they duly delivered. With some new joiners to the team this year it was great to see them settling into the team well and Finn B and Sam (back from his sabbatical with American Football) both got on the score sheet alongside Gabe (everpresent in last years squad).
Once again the benefit of having Friends of Scottish Rugby (FOSR) provide support to the team was clear. We use the support provided by FOSR to provide a professional coaching structure throughout our U16-U18 age group.
The benefits of this is then clearly reflected on the field where the team have far more structure, composure and intensity than most oppositions.
Whilst there were still some areas to work on, the coaching team of Michael Mullins, Neil MacFarlane, Phil Cringle and Deanna Bailey were well pleased.
Kicking off into the breeze the Scots were soon applying pressure to OA’s on their 22. Scrums were awarded to either side before Scottish started to gain some phases. Moving the ball left Scottish looked to have numbers outside, Ishy showed some Fijian like skills with an over the top pass to Finn B who showed his pace and ran in the first try of the afternoon, 5-0. Too wide for the conversion to go over, OA’s took the restart.
A scrum to Scottish was penalised for feeding (probably the first and only time you’ll see that law reffed properly this year) and OAs took the penalty and worked their way up to our 22. Some frantic handling in the backline led to a knock on, and the ensuing scrum saw the Scots pack start to exert some serious pressure on their opposition.
Finn S put in a crunching tackle which forced a knock on and a scrum our way, from which the boys started to run it back before Gabe was edged into touch on the right hand side. Moments later with an attacking platform in their half, the Scots showed some great hands to put Finn B away for his second on the left. This time he had time and space to run it round and score under the posts to make the conversion easier, Max duly obliged and took the score to 14-0.
For the rest of the half the boys looked in control, but were unable to score again. Tom took a run on the inside but was halted. Ollie put in a crunching tackle and the Scots won the turnover, Max took them into the 22, but then errors on the OA line let the points slip. Joe was held up and from the ensuing scrum 5 the ball went through the hands before a knock on ended the move. OA’s tried to get out of their 22 with a kick, however failed to make touch and the Scots were back putting the pressure on again deep into the OA’s half. The half ended with the Scots unable to make further in roads but holding a healthy 14-0 lead.
With the wind building a bit for the second period OA’s misjudged the restart and failed to make 10m from the kick. The Scots opted for a scrum, and this was to become a theme as the Scots scrum was gaining dominance and had guaranteed clean ball from their put in each time. A few phases later, pressure again at the scrum led to turnover ball for the Scots, who kicked intelligently to the corner. At first denied, the Scots kept OA’s pinned deep into their 22 before being awarded another scrum.
Handling got a bit scrappy before Sam latched onto the ball off a ruck, and spotting a gap, went through to score just left of the posts. Max duly converted to take the score to 19-0. Following the restart, a surge up the middle from Alec, with defenders desperately clinging on, took the game back into the OA’s half.
Another kick over their heads almost ended up with a try, but we were held up in goal. Back for a scrum 5. Throughout this period the Scots weren’t letting OA’s settle at all, and everytime OA’s went for a relieving kick it was duly sent back into their 22m with Ted putting in some great kick n’chases which must have been really demoralising for them. Eventually the pressure told, and following some great hands from the backline, including a pick up from the ankles, Gabe was through on the right to take the score to
24-0 with the fourth try bonus. The rest of the half was played in OA’s half but the boys were unable to add to the scoreline. A couple of injuries meant we ended the game playing a man down, but OA’s were still unable to find the space and good defence from the Scots kept them pinned back. With the final whistle gone the boys were pleased to hold OA’s to a nil scoreline, and had showed glimpses of how they ended last season as well. Lots to do in training on Wednesday, but a good first outing in the league.
