Awayday at Ashby

In stark contrast to the previous weeks weather conditions at Old Sils, the mighty U8’s travelled to Ashby and weather conditions that resembled the Mediterranean rather than the East Midlands in Mid-October.
As the team slowly gathered for the matches ahead and the parents watched the well drilled training session of their counterparts, the U8’s did what they do best. They found a nearby wood to examine and discovered the hidden treasure of a stream, a crate, various pieces of wood and the pièce de résistance - a tyre. In an effort to improve their strength, endurance, hand eye coordination and explosive power they then proceeded as part of their warm-up to push the tyre around the rugby field.
With nearly a full complement of players the team completed their warm up with the coaches and split into two teams to play four matches against the sizeable Ashby squad that had the luxury of being able to rotate their players throughout the various games.
Pre-occupied with the hidden treasures of the wood and the need to return there after the game it is fair to say that the boys were a little slow out of the box this week and during the first match their passing often went astray, and they let the opposition score some easy tries after giving the ball away far too often.
Improvement was needed, and the teams did not disappoint as during the second games they started to attack the opposition with increased ball and ensured the tags were made. During the third games the free-flowing passing rugby returned, they played with a man down but still found the energy to pressure the opposition into mistakes. The passing game of the U8’s was certainly pleasing the spectators. The final and fourth game of the day saw both teams put in their best performance combining on several occasions to score tries that had seen the ball pass through each team member on at least one occasion.
At the final whistle it was time for the clubhouse and a sausage sandwich before of course returning to the wood.
Well played all.