Wortley RUFC

Dear Parents, Friends and Supporters of the Wortley Junior Section


Result: Huddersfield:

Our 5 side extravaganza failed to materialise as we didn’t quite have the number of players. The U9s lost those on Twickenham duty with U10’s - Nick revising Tag not Tackle for the Lucky 11. Many parents did email in the week but many more did not reply at all. Please let us know if you can and more importantly, if you can’t attend a game. It is not fair to the other team to present a side and find no opposition on the day. If people would prefer to be contacted by phone or text rather than email, please let me know and supply numbers. That said we did get 3 games so things are still on the up.

Update on upcoming Fixtures:

Dronfield Away Sunday February 5th THAT IS NEXT SUNDAY
Sheffield Away Sunday February 26th
Doncaster Mini Rugby Festival U8 & U9 Away Sunday 25th March

Wortley Website:

Can I commend everybody to make http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/wortleyrufc a favourite? Thanks to Darrin & Mick’s efforts we now have quite a vibrant and rapidly changing fixture list. The website is going to be a better receptacle for information than these newsletters. First time you log in you apply for membership, that might take the webmaster a few days to organise but thereafter you simply log in with your email & password and have access to all the club pages including the section pertinent to your children. It would be nice to make this an active forum as well as a site to go to for information.

As important, the website has an ‘online shopping’ portal so that you can undertake your normal online shopping, but providing the club with a small percentage return. IMPORTANT: you do not pay any extra; the return is from the company that you shop with. You will find this as a header on the club website – “Shop”. Please use this, it will provide income for the club; provide free shirts for the kids…etc.

Rugby Ready:

Wortley RUFC welcomes with open arms anyone that wants to get involved in the coaching side of the club. However, there are three mandatory qualifications:

1. You have to be a member of the club - £30 gets you all the privileges outlined in Newsletter #6 (11/12/11) and remember the club pays for the courses.

2. CRB check – takes 10 minutes and two forms of ID. Contact Donna Stevens, club safeguarding officer to arrange this. lemonz@btinternet.com 07930 537809

3. Attend a Rugby Ready course which shows you in 3 hours how to teach the basics of rugby safely. The next Rugby Ready course is at Barnsley RUFC on Wed 29th Feb 6 – 9pm.

RBS Rugby Force:

Keep an eye out for clips of your children at last summer’s Rugby Force day at Wortley as part of the 6 nation’s publicity.

Keep out a special cheer for a mixed Wortley under 10 & 11 sides playing at Twickenham on 25 Feb just before the lesser know sides of England and Wales play. I hope we will see the children playing as part of the warm up coverage. Our side helps form the guard of honour for the two international sides to walk onto the pitch.

Travel Arrangements:

For the Dronfield match will follow by email as usual.
Please let us know if you can or if you can’t attend.
Thank you as always for your continued support,
the Wortley Juniors Committee.

Reportage:

Huddersfield v Wortley U7 – Mike Shewring

Early fears of a frozen pitch proved unfounded. Wortley arrived at a cold, misty but mercifully dry Lockwood Park. Hands were cold but hearts were aflame. The under 7’s picked up pretty much where they left off last week with Dinnington. A partnership was formed last week between Max Jordan and Fred Padgett that was balanced by the positional awareness of Oliver Fretwell & the return of Leo Wools. Four 'try hungry' attack dogs. However piercing these four were in attack the Huddersfield side were no mugs. The extra man (8 a side), a narrower pitch and some very solid defending resulted in congestion. The wide spaces were hard to find for most of the game but there were some great evasive runs from both sides. Both had to resort to the second option of passing at the tag to break down the shield wall defence. The lead alternated though tries were rare, the game played in the middle half of the pitch and only rarely crossing the last 5 metres. Two of the Huddersfield girls were very fast and it is possible our Wortley gentlemen were too polite to tag them. Marko Perunovic was awarded the title of “Whippet” from the Huddersfield touchline. Jack Shewring did well as captain, instructing his troops and making certain the younger members got the ball. It was good to see Ewan Mackie and William Halstead. Special mention must be made of the referee – 14 years old and his first game and he was superb. Oh to be so calm under pressure.

Huddersfield v Wortley U8 – Richard Mackie

The U8's lined up against a strong looking Huddersfield side - size was definitely on the home side. The game started up and it soon became apparent that there was plenty of space to be had if the ball was moved quickly after the Tag. With the first series of plays Wortley moved the ball out wide showing some good handling skills - Hugh M receiving the ball with enough space to round a couple of defenders to score. Huddersfield evened the score with their first play, Wortley making the tags but eventually running out of defenders. The remainder of the first half continued in the same vein, Wortley were boosted by the arrival of Tom Shewring (you might have thought the junior secretary might have known the directions :P) and took a slender lead into half time. The second half and the Wortley running game continued. A jinking run saw Tom extend the lead and other tries were scored by George S, John H and Curtis C after some good running from William O and Kyle W. Huddersfield struggled to keep up as the Wortley tagging was tenacious and tireless. The gap widened with Wortley eventually running out 13-8 winners. Thanks to Phil Wools for reffing the game.

Huddersfield v Wortley U9 – Paul Sammon was there

Wortley could only provide 3 players in this age group – Matt Sammon, Robert Howlett and Kyle Wools. However, with the agreement of Huddersfield we were able to make up a combined Hudderfield/Wortley 8 to play the Huddersfield 9. We played twice.

Both games were competitive and even. The small Wortley contingent enabled Matt and Robert to have more of the ball than they would usually expect. Robert made a number of runs, where he broke through the Huddersfield defence. He demonstrated excellent fleet of foot zig zag running. He was strong in the contact area, and made a number of effective tackles.

Matt Sammon also showed strong commitment in the contact area, and was eager to take the ball. Matt made a number of effective breaks, and showed improved tactical awareness in the break down. The cherry on the cake was when he supported one of Roberts’s mazy runs, and from the ruck, picked the ball and carried it through several Huddersfield tacklers to score his FIRST competitive try. Dad was very proud.

The big pat on the back must also go to Kyle, who had his first contact match, against an experienced and very mobile Huddersfield team. He showed great physical fitness in keeping up with the play, and was fearless and very active in the contact area. He managed to pick and run a couple of times, and made good yardage – uncle Phil would have been smiling.

Kyle had a turn in the scrum, and played the whole game with a smile on his face. Matt and Robert were able to take part in the line out and scrum, and both will have attained good match experience from this game
Our very own ‘Ed’ display provided a physical edge. He was a standout player. Ed’s physical advantage was put to good use. He got a lot of the ball and consistently made good yardage, demonstrating strong and effective driving technique.

In summary,

The teams were tremendous ambassadors for the Wortley junior section.
A huge thank you goes to Huddersfield for their cooperation in ensuring everybody got a game and their excellent hospitality afterwards. We should definitely arrange a return, and ensure we have a full turn out. This fixture should be competitive and a great learning opportunity.

If anyone else would like to write up a game, please give it a go. I guarantee we can use your perspective.

Regards to all, Mike