Wilmslow and Ashton Triangle – 16^th  November 2003

"Last week's triangle tournament turned into somewhat of a quadrangle as Wilmslow with 20 boys were able to field 2 teams of 9. Ashton, the other side, only had 8, but it did mean that we got 3 games, albeit only 30 mins of actual playing time.

The first game against Wilmslow was a very close affair with Wilmslow just coming out on top by 4 tries to 3. There was an awful lot of mauling in this game as players from both sides got held up in tackles. Our players put in a solid performance in this repsect, and got around the park well. If we'd rucked as well as we'd mauled I think the boys would have edged this game but unfortunately as I was to realise by the next game we'd forgotten what a ruck was, and what we could and couldn't do in a ruck situation.

Our second game was also against Wilmslow, and again we were pipped by an extra try in their favour. The nature of the game was pretty much as the first except this time we didn't get quite as many players sucked into the breakdown such that we were exposed on the fringes. The support play was very good.

Our last game was against Ashton, and I think by the time this came around our boys were a bit tired and had lost concentration. I don't think the short playing times helped. Although we lost the game, mainly because of failure to maintain a defensive line and some missed tackles, the boys supported each other well in attack and scored some good tries of their own.

Overall, the most pleasing aspects were the boys' discipline in not moaning about ref's decisions (of which there were a couple of dubious ones), the support play, and the way in which they are gelling as a team."

Blackburn and Littleborough Triangle – 26^th October 2003

A frosty morning had turned into a nice warm Autumn morning by the time kick-off approached at 11am and Manchester's 12 U9's were eager to get going. 

Unfortunately, to complicate matters, Blackburn only had 6 U9's and Littleborough had a combined team of 5 U9's and 7 U10's. As it turned out however, this meant all our boys got more rugby than I thought they might, which was great. 

The first game was against Blackburn whom we lent 3 of our players.

In fact, before I go on, every one of our boys ended up playing 10 mins. for Blackburn and the spirit and determination shown by each one of them was both a credit to themselves and the Club, and was good to see. 

The Blackburn game was hard fought. They had some good tacklers and Manchester needed to keep the ball alive and spread it out wide which we did to good effect. This together with our tackling, which is also getting better throughout the team week by week, ensured we came out on top. Once again when we had the ball there was good support play and we always looked dangerous scoring several good tries.

Six of our boys had already played for Blackburn in their game against Littleborough and done themselves proud so we knew what to expect when it was our turn to play them. Full marks to the boys from Littleborough who had played a lot of rugby that morning (doubling between U9 and U10 games) and were still game to play us, albeit a 12 min. game.

This was a tough encounter and both teams fought extremely hard to get possession of the ball. Every one of our boys played well and although Littleborough just nudged the victory by an extra try they knew they had been in a match.

I couldn't really pick a man-of-the-match because it would have been unfair - everyone was man-of-the-match.

There was very good running and tackling from Harry and Laurence, good running also from William who has got a super little shimmy on him, and Max and Paddy too, who, if they can remember to drop their shoulder like the Blackburn boy did against Littleborough (instead of handing-off; not allowed just yet boys I'm afraid!) then they will be a potent force. Alex Perrie put in excellent tackles again as did Simon and Philip who harried opponents well. Alex Langton made a couple of good tackles and used his strength to good effect. Lewis, Joe and Matthew all made some good yardage and the team is starting to gel more week by week.

Again, the support play was excellent. Well done everyone!

Training this coming Sunday will focus on tackling, mauling and some rucking, line-out and some scrummaging.

See you then,

John.