We trained at Harrow again this week in noticeably mild conditions for a Sunday morning in late October but a just bit chillier than we have been used to in recent weeks. On arrival, the players were very keen to get going this week and so we broke with tradition and all enjoyed some kicking practice for a good ten minutes at the start of the session. It always amazes me how quick the players can pick up a skill and within minutes there were Garryowens, spiral kicks and terrifying grubbers a plenty. Although kicking is not part of the Under 7s game, it is never too early to start developing this fundamental skill and all of the players get a real sense of achievement when they connect for a big kick. We will look at some kicking practice throughout the rest of the season at opportune moments and continue to work on the timing and technique.

We gathered the players together to explain that this week was all about defence and working as a team to apply pressure to the attacking team. Then we moved swiftly into a really good warm up where we pretended to be aliens and animals of the players’ choice. Remarkably, the slug, snail and snake feature every week in our animal warm up, which makes me think that some of the players just enjoy rolling in the mud but this is entirely forgivable as it's one of the most important rugby skills! We followed the warm up with a few games of stuck in the mud. To concentrate on defensive technique, we rapidly developed the drill to involve a defensive line and picked out the key learning points about this tactic. The players needed no prompting to identify that a line works when you all stick together and breaks down when players rush out of the line and leave space behind. The starting position in a game for the defending team is a line and so we always need to understand how to revert to this formation. However, as the season develops, we will introduce some alternative tactics and formations including blitz defence, the fullback option and zone coverage.

Next up, we carried out a full pitch drill that involved a continuous cycle of attackers against a team of defenders. This drill is very hard work because the attackers are sprinting the full length of the Under 7s pitch to complete each simulated try. As such, the players displayed excellent determination to maintain a high tempo throughout several iterations. From here we developed the defending elements with a quick session of run the gauntlet. In this drill, each player gets the chance to score a try through a seemingly impossible tunnel of defenders. We will use this drill again to really focus on each player’s running and evasion techniques but today was about the tagging players and gaining confidence in making a tackle. We followed these drills with a set of small matches (3 on 3), building up to a big match with everyone playing (6 on 6). In the final big match, we could really see the progress that the players had made during the session with furious tackling and great use of the defensive line. Tries were scored due to an individual flash of genius or more often the steady progress of a team that was willing to make ground, support superbly and pass effectively. We need to continue to work on passing backwards and not crossing the touchline but these were caused by the pressure applied by the other team’s defensive effort and so I was very pleased that this was the culminating effect of a great defensive oriented training session.

We rounded out this week’s training with a short game of Bulldog. All the players were justifiably tired out after a hard session but they can be very proud of their efforts this week. Well done to all the players and congratulations go to Fiachre (Best Effort Award) and Harry (Player of the Week). I look forward to seeing you all again at the next training session.

Johnny