Sunday 20th September

Glorious sunshine rose over Grove fields and combined with the inevitable Rugby World Cup fever to provide us with the biggest turn out of the year. Twenty six players prepared for the warm up with new players Reuben, Kade, Emma and Rio. A warm Harrow RFC welcome to the new players. We were joined by the U12s who included their new player Charlie, welcome to him also.

The warm up led into to passing, drop kicks, rucking and maul drills. Tempest fugit and it was soon eleven o'clock and time for a full contact game.

The coaches expanded the pitch for a game of 13 a side bibs v shirts. Bibs kicked off and it was the U12s who showed their strength. However, the coaches were impressed with the tackles put in to bring the bigger players down. A fantastic effort from every player. The rucks and mauls were a little crowded with so many on the pitch. However, Malcolm as ever showed his strength in the maul. Benj was chasing and tackling hard as usual. It was the new players who really stood out, impressive in a first game. Kade inparticular showed his tremendous pace combined with power to put in some great tackles. He soon showed he can attack and went over in the right corner for his first ever try for Harrow. Congratulations to him and the first of many we hope. Emma was working hard to keep her defensive shape and also had some good runs down the left flank. Reuben was also impressive and was quick to join the scrum. Galloway was blitzing the press defence and working very hard to shut down the larger U12s before they got into top gear. Jamie S took a superb pass from a ripped ball off Malcolm and hit top gear to go over the top of three defenders and score in the left corner. Daniel was causing damage in the midfield with his power runs as usual. You must hit him low as he has a very low centre of gravity! A great session came to an end with the score 8-8. I thought everyone played well today with too many great efforts to mention here. So I thank you all for your effort and hard work. Well done to you all.

Coaches awards went to the following:

Galloway for his press blitz defence and tackling.

Emma for concentration and effort throughout the entire session.

Reuben for effort and willingness to scrummage.

Kade was the coaches unanimous choice as player of the day. He was outstanding in defence chasing hard and tacking well. In attack he showed blistering pace and power. Congratulations on scoring his first try for Harrow RFC.

A special thank you to Ish, Amanda, Clare, Sarah, Andrew and Simon who did a fabulous job running the kitchen and kit shop.

Next week we are at home training starts 1000.