Congratulations for the County Cup win on Sunday, this was a culmination of great effort and team work from all of our U9 squad. I speak for all coaches when I say that we are very proud of our squad of players, and that includes everyone who was at Westoe today, as well as those who come to training week in week out. It was a shame that it was not possible to take every single one of you.

All of our players have had a superb start to this season and have taken to tackling like they have been doing it for years! They have demonstrated their prowess on the field at Houghton, Yarm and at home against Stockton. They have also had the experience of playing on Hollow Drift 1 as a curtain raiser to the 1st XV, followed by running touch and being water boys for the duration of the match. The progress, enthusiasm and determination of all our players is very exciting to see and we cannot wait to watch their continued development.

With consideration to the County Cup, Durham City conceded one try to the opposition teams in the whole tournament. This was a tremendous effort and the tackling demonstrated today was outstanding both in technique and endeavour. I am in no doubt that the best two teams met in the semi-final and it should have been an all Durham City final. I think we blew just about every other team off the park and even when the opposition had the ball they seemed to be going backwards.

We will bring the trophy down to training and would encourage any players who have not yet got a photo of them with the trophy to do so (this is an invitation to absolutely every one of the squad).

Finally, thank you too, to all parents for your continued support in bringing the players to training and games, without you we wouldn’t have a team.

Mike and the Coaching Team

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