Lovely to see so many children enjoying their rugby in the late summer sunshine yesterday morning. The players have responded really well to the more complex aspects of the game that we have been introducing in preparation for the upcoming festivals. We continue to train the core skills of passing, tackling and rucking, but we have also been focusing on some positional skills to give our play more structure.

Firstly, we have been coaching the children to adopt a deeper, diagonal line when we are in possession, as this will allow them (i) to run forward and gain momentum in attacks and (ii) the space to move the ball along the attacking line to the wider areas where there will inevitably be more scoring opportunities.

Our defensive objective is to form a flat defensive line, breaking as one with good line-speed to (i) challenge attackers before they cross the gain line and (ii) create pressure on the ball.

These two objectives are key to us developing our preferred style of play which is exciting, running rugby in attack and uncompromising physicality in defence.

We will be sharing some videos later in the week which we hope will assist the children to better understand these concepts. In the meantime, if any children express the desire to practice in midweek, please encourage them to try drop-kicking; this is an important skill for restarts in tournament rugby. Here's a helpful video; top tip, the ball must bounce first!

Well done to our players of the week, Leo. Zach & Thomas, all of whom demonstrated great learning around attacking and defensive realignment. Hat's off to Coach Lynsey for capturing the amazing sky as well!

As you all know, there are festivals approaching on two consecutive weekends on 09 and 16 October at home and Beaconsfield respectively. We will not be able to take all of the children to these festivals so we would like to arrange alternative training or fixtures for those who do not get selected. To make plans with other clubs we need you all to confirm your availability as soon as possible using Pitchero please. We still have about a third of our squad with unconfirmed availability for 09 October and half for 16 October. Let me know if you have any questions or you are unable to access the system. I find it easier to use the Pitchero app which sends messages and reminders directly to your phone.

Look forward to seeing you all next weekend.

Regards,
DC
U11 AGO
A&C RFC
07929 019133