Despite a few members of the squad being unavailable due to half term excursions, 23 hardy souls battled the elements on Sunday morning.

The first part of the session was spent working on a player's ability to take and give a lateral pass on the run, before we introduced the added complication of a couple of defenders.

We then split the players up into four teams of either 5 or 6 and played matched for the remainder of the session.

In the first the Red team (James Walford, Ellie Wallace, Ben Stock, Ollie Hand and Ben Shaw) took on the Blue team (Alfie Manders, Callum Clarke, Jarryd Wallace, Adam Hawkes and Christian Gunner) and were victorious by 8 tries to 5. At the same time the Yellow team (Oscar Jackson, Eden Daborn, Chandler Victor, Sam Clough, Callum Hailes and Samuel Hudson) beat the Green team (Jamie Brown, Ki Morgan, Matthew Dalrymple, Aggie Halley, Felix Long and Keiran Riach) by 6 tries to 4.

After a swift drinks break (leaning back and opening your mouth for 10 seconds was enough!) the teams swapped round with Keiran changing his allegiance to the Blue team to even up the numbers.

This time the Reds played the Greens with both teams scoring nine tries each(including a hat trick for Ellie Wallace) whilst the Yellows enjoyed a win against the Blues.

In fact both players of the week came from the Red team. Ellie Wallace had showed some pace and guile to escape the clutches of the Green defence in the second game to win the Coaches' Award whilst Ben Shaw had tried hard all morning and won the Effort Award.

We are still awaiting news of the fixture against Staines and Wasps next weekend - watch this space!

Tom Walford
U8 Manager.