Adventures in kids coaching

[laurent]

I love that photo Laurent, the expression on her face, the ball being so huge, the player behind trying to make the tackle, it's all terrific.

@ Slick Good luck with he coaching

Thanks a lot (happy with it and a few others)

Unfortunately our U18 Ladies (damzels) Got a hiding in Tours at the week end.
Most of the team is U16 and new at that level, the step up is big and they played their first game against a more experienced team.

[Slick]

I love that photo Laurent, the expression on her face, the ball being so huge, the player behind trying to make the tackle, it's all terrific.

@ Slick Good luck with he coaching

Yeah... always used to laugh at stories of coaches falling out with each other over 7 year olds training.... can see how it happens...

The lead guy, top guy but quite emotional, wanted to spend an hour teaching them how to run into space. Not one of the kids had a bloody clue what he was on about the entire time. I suggested maybe we should teach them to catch and pass first.

[Raggs]

I love that photo Laurent, the expression on her face, the ball being so huge, the player behind trying to make the tackle, it's all terrific.

@ Slick Good luck with he coaching

Yeah... always used to laugh at stories of coaches falling out with each other over 7 year olds training.... can see how it happens...

The lead guy, top guy but quite emotional, wanted to spend an hour teaching them how to run into space. Not one of the kids had a bloody clue what he was on about the entire time. I suggested maybe we should teach them to catch and pass first.

Had it pointed out to me on a coaching course, as most of us were lamenting (adult and kid coaches alike) about how quiet most players are, and still tend to honeypot and not listen etc, that unless someone is completely comfortable with what they are doing in that instance, they're not going to have any brainpower left over to focus on organising defensive lines etc. That hit home as I realised when I first came back to playing, I constantly was so busy thinking about just being onside and facing the attack, I didn't hear a word being said to me, and certainly couldn't pay attention as to whether the defence was spread, if there were sufficient numbers etc. It's only as I've become more comfortable, that I've started to be able to actually communicate usefully.

For a kid still learning the laws, and simply how to play, there's a huge amount to focus on before even worrying about spreading out etc.

[Slick]

I love that photo Laurent, the expression on her face, the ball being so huge, the player behind trying to make the tackle, it's all terrific.

@ Slick Good luck with he coaching

Yeah... always used to laugh at stories of coaches falling out with each other over 7 year olds training.... can see how it happens...

The lead guy, top guy but quite emotional, wanted to spend an hour teaching them how to run into space. Not one of the kids had a bloody clue what he was on about the entire time. I suggested maybe we should teach them to catch and pass first.

Had it pointed out to me on a coaching course, as most of us were lamenting (adult and kid coaches alike) about how quiet most players are, and still tend to honeypot and not listen etc, that unless someone is completely comfortable with what they are doing in that instance, they're not going to have any brainpower left over to focus on organising defensive lines etc. That hit home as I realised when I first came back to playing, I constantly was so busy thinking about just being onside and facing the attack, I didn't hear a word being said to me, and certainly couldn't pay attention as to whether the defence was spread, if there were sufficient numbers etc. It's only as I've become more comfortable, that I've started to be able to actually communicate usefully.

For a kid still learning the laws, and simply how to play, there's a huge amount to focus on before even worrying about spreading out etc.

That's a really excellent point.

The other issue was that the one or two that did follow the instructions were stuck out wide never getting the ball as the other 20 were in a 2m square screaming pass! It was just silly.

Also, I had no idea how difficult it is to get even 4 7 year olds to shut the fuck up and listen - particularly difficult to control when you don't know who's parents are on the touchline

Anyway, got a few passing drills going with my small group and they seemed to really enjoy it, and so did I.

[Raggs]

That's a really excellent point.

The other issue was that the one or two that did follow the instructions were stuck out wide never getting the ball as the other 20 were in a 2m square screaming pass! It was just silly.

Also, I had no idea how difficult it is to get even 4 7 year olds to shut the fuck up and listen - particularly difficult to control when you don't know who's parents are on the touchline

Anyway, got a few passing drills going with my small group and they seemed to really enjoy it, and so did I.

They don't get much better as they get older :D.

Though in fairness, some do. The problem is, there's enough of them that don't, that it's hard to see the improvement! And of course, if it's a small club, you get new players in who obviously are in the situation of not knowing what's going on.

They also really want to run with the ball, so the idea of getting them to pass during a match, is really tough. Those that do pass, tend to be those who are scared of getting hit in a tackle, so it tends to be less of a pass and more of a panic throw the ball away.

[Brazil]

A good rule of thumb is that they can maintain their focus for one minute per year of age, so I don't do any drills for longer than seven minutes for my lot, before going onto something new. It also helps if you can make the technical stuff fun with games like passing relays.

My lot were little sods this weekend, and I had to use my full emotional range to keep them from going completely Lord of the Flies.

[laurent]

That's a really excellent point.

The other issue was that the one or two that did follow the instructions were stuck out wide never getting the ball as the other 20 were in a 2m square screaming pass! It was just silly.

Also, I had no idea how difficult it is to get even 4 7 year olds to shut the fuck up and listen - particularly difficult to control when you don't know who's parents are on the touchline

Anyway, got a few passing drills going with my small group and they seemed to really enjoy it, and so did I.

They don't get much better as they get older :D.

Though in fairness, some do. The problem is, there's enough of them that don't, that it's hard to see the improvement! And of course, if it's a small club, you get new players in who obviously are in the situation of not knowing what's going on.

They also really want to run with the ball, so the idea of getting them to pass during a match, is really tough. Those that do pass, tend to be those who are scared of getting hit in a tackle, so it tends to be less of a pass and more of a panic throw the ball away.

With The Under10 and passing we got them to properly support each others.
however the run and pass is still a work in progress.
We have the Strongest (4/5 in the team are absolute terrors) on a project : once they racked up some tries we ask them to share with the others this has worked well they even actively try to pick their weaker friends to pass to.

On the Support I got them a simple drill as part of the warmup that made support lines a piece of cake this week end.
In pairs one behind the other on field length (their field length ).
number1 runs with the ball then turns number2 picks from hand and accelerates (repeat till on the other end).
on return leg number 1 does a pop pass ...
Saturday they pretty much always got support when caught. (tackling is quite weak still)

They still mill around as soon as play breaks down but we are not expecting this to improve much yet.

[Raggs]

That's a really excellent point.

The other issue was that the one or two that did follow the instructions were stuck out wide never getting the ball as the other 20 were in a 2m square screaming pass! It was just silly.

Also, I had no idea how difficult it is to get even 4 7 year olds to shut the fuck up and listen - particularly difficult to control when you don't know who's parents are on the touchline

Anyway, got a few passing drills going with my small group and they seemed to really enjoy it, and so did I.

They don't get much better as they get older :D.

Though in fairness, some do. The problem is, there's enough of them that don't, that it's hard to see the improvement! And of course, if it's a small club, you get new players in who obviously are in the situation of not knowing what's going on.

They also really want to run with the ball, so the idea of getting them to pass during a match, is really tough. Those that do pass, tend to be those who are scared of getting hit in a tackle, so it tends to be less of a pass and more of a panic throw the ball away.

With The Under10 and passing we got them to properly support each others.
however the run and pass is still a work in progress.
We have the Strongest (4/5 in the team are absolute terrors) on a project : once they racked up some tries we ask them to share with the others this has worked well they even actively try to pick their weaker friends to pass to.

On the Support I got them a simple drill as part of the warmup that made support lines a piece of cake this week end.
In pairs one behind the other on field length (their field length ).
number1 runs with the ball then turns number2 picks from hand and accelerates (repeat till on the other end).
on return leg number 1 does a pop pass ...
Saturday they pretty much always got support when caught. (tackling is quite weak still)

They still mill around as soon as play breaks down but we are not expecting this to improve much yet.

The longer the game goes on (or at least the phases), the messier it always gets. Still, I'm taking the little victories. Got one kid, quite a big lad (At least for us), suspected dyspraxia, and really soft. Scared to tackle, but managed to get him to carry, and mean it. He got stripped of the ball the first few times, but always made yards, seemed to really boost his confidence which was nice to see.

I still feel like I'm the worst coach in the world when I see some squads just run around, fling the ball to each other, and score freely. But the clubs have perhaps 2-3x more players than us, and that's after they get to select from a list of kids trying to join them. Makes me realise that if I could just get twice as many of my good ones (none of whom are real physical freaks like some we've seen), we'd probably play some pretty nice looking stuff.

[laurent]

They don't get much better as they get older :D.

Though in fairness, some do. The problem is, there's enough of them that don't, that it's hard to see the improvement! And of course, if it's a small club, you get new players in who obviously are in the situation of not knowing what's going on.

They also really want to run with the ball, so the idea of getting them to pass during a match, is really tough. Those that do pass, tend to be those who are scared of getting hit in a tackle, so it tends to be less of a pass and more of a panic throw the ball away.

With The Under10 and passing we got them to properly support each others.
however the run and pass is still a work in progress.
We have the Strongest (4/5 in the team are absolute terrors) on a project : once they racked up some tries we ask them to share with the others this has worked well they even actively try to pick their weaker friends to pass to.

On the Support I got them a simple drill as part of the warmup that made support lines a piece of cake this week end.
In pairs one behind the other on field length (their field length ).
number1 runs with the ball then turns number2 picks from hand and accelerates (repeat till on the other end).
on return leg number 1 does a pop pass ...
Saturday they pretty much always got support when caught. (tackling is quite weak still)

They still mill around as soon as play breaks down but we are not expecting this to improve much yet.

The longer the game goes on (or at least the phases), the messier it always gets. Still, I'm taking the little victories. Got one kid, quite a big lad (At least for us), suspected dyspraxia, and really soft. Scared to tackle, but managed to get him to carry, and mean it. He got stripped of the ball the first few times, but always made yards, seemed to really boost his confidence which was nice to see.

I still feel like I'm the worst coach in the world when I see some squads just run around, fling the ball to each other, and score freely. But the clubs have perhaps 2-3x more players than us, and that's after they get to select from a list of kids trying to join them. Makes me realise that if I could just get twice as many of my good ones (none of whom are real physical freaks like some we've seen), we'd probably play some pretty nice looking stuff.

Numbers matter a lot. Our group of 14 regular at training has 2 freaks and a lot of good relatively experienced kids and 2 or 3 weak players. The bigger clubs can put out almost a full team of freakishly good kids.

Our aim is to have all the kids playing (just like training) this Saturday we had 10, they play 5 a side for now (moving to 7 later on). So it was 5 on 5 off .
At the end tackling was optional for all the kids, with wet and cold the last game finished 4v4 the other having all gone in the changing rooms ...

[assfly]

I've decided to bite the bullet and jump into coaching. My sons are U9 and U11, so I'm helping out with the U9 group which is good fun.

My club has agreed to assist with Level 1 coaching course which I'm quite looking forward to.

We've got the former coach of the Kenyan men's senior team looking after the mini rugby, so not a bad person to work under.

[laurent]

Welcome

[Sinkers]

I’m always looking for good on-line resources if you guys have any recommendations.
Particularly interested in Term/season and even annual (know that’s a bit optimistic) planning at the moment

[Slick]

I’m always looking for good on-line resources if you guys have any recommendations.
Particularly interested in Term/season and even annual (know that’s a bit optimistic) planning at the moment

I've been looking at this for the u8's - all other age groups on there as well.

https://www.rugbycoachweekly.net/age-gr ... -and-games

[Slick]

I’m always looking for good on-line resources if you guys have any recommendations.
Particularly interested in Term/season and even annual (know that’s a bit optimistic) planning at the moment

I've been looking at this for the u8's - all other age groups on there as well.

https://www.rugbycoachweekly.net/age-gr ... -and-games

EDIT - just realised if you use it too much you have to register/pay, but still some decent stuff

[Ovals]

Two of my Grandaughters (15 and 13) and my Grandson (9) are keen rugby players, they all started two years ago . The older of the two Grandaughters in in the Hampshire squad (she's a Flanker) and hopes to do her A levels at Worthing College where the Quins academy is. Went to watch her training last week - Joe Marchant's dad takes the under 15s for training once a week - he's very good - so it was great to see him putting them through various exercises.

The 13 year old is quite a slim bulid (and at the younger end of the age scale for her group). She normally plays wing or centre - we're really surprised she's taken to the sport as she hates the cold and just doesn't seem the type to 'mix it' in a physical environment - but she really gets stuck in and has a terrific tackling technique and is quite happy to bring down the 'bigger' girls - she also has really good handling skills.

They all seem to be making great progress considering this is only their 3rd season. 2 years ago their teams were just getting really hammered in every game - now they are winning about 2/3rds of their games.

[laurent]

We did the team photos for U14 U12 U10

They have a message

[laurent]

Our U18 damzels won their first ever game at home in terrible conditions against Nevers (Pro D2 club )

The U14 played before and had a blast (beating bigger clubs in the process ).

I will try to sort photos but the U18 is going to be throw away more than half the game was too late...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurentcg ... 313290934
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB6jh3

[Ovals]

Mike Marchent has convinced my Grandaughter to have a try at SH (she's been playing Flanker). She's also just received her Hampshire kit, so she's a happy Bunny atm. Main problem is that her games keep getting called off for bad weather or oppos failing to get a side out.

And she's just got her Black Belt in Karate (as did her older sister).

[Sandstorm]

Mike Marchent has convinced my Grandaughter to have a try at SH (she's been playing Flanker). She's also just received her Hampshire kit, so she's a happy Bunny atm. Main problem is that her games keep getting called off for bad weather or oppos failing to get a side out.

And she's just got her Black Belt in Karate (as did her older sister).

Impressive

[laurent]

Mike Marchent has convinced my Grandaughter to have a try at SH (she's been playing Flanker). She's also just received her Hampshire kit, so she's a happy Bunny atm. Main problem is that her games keep getting called off for bad weather or oppos failing to get a side out.

And she's just got her Black Belt in Karate (as did her older sister).

Good for her.

Sadly it's hard to get any underage setup; our U18 team is mainly populated with our club's girls with 3 others in the mix. One of the other 3 clubs joined up thinking they would have about 5 girls ended up with 0 .

[Ovals]

Mike Marchent has convinced my Grandaughter to have a try at SH (she's been playing Flanker). She's also just received her Hampshire kit, so she's a happy Bunny atm. Main problem is that her games keep getting called off for bad weather or oppos failing to get a side out.

And she's just got her Black Belt in Karate (as did her older sister).

Good for her.

Sadly it's hard to get any underage setup; our U18 team is mainly populated with our club's girls with 3 others in the mix. One of the other 3 clubs joined up thinking they would have about 5 girls ended up with 0 .

Two of our local clubs band together the girls age group Rugby - Winchester and Estleigh play as Winchleigh. One GDaughter (15yo) trains at Winchester, the other(13yo) at Eastleigh !!

[Ovals]

Mike Marchent has convinced my Grandaughter to have a try at SH (she's been playing Flanker). She's also just received her Hampshire kit, so she's a happy Bunny atm. Main problem is that her games keep getting called off for bad weather or oppos failing to get a side out.

And she's just got her Black Belt in Karate (as did her older sister).

Good for her.

Sadly it's hard to get any underage setup; our U18 team is mainly populated with our club's girls with 3 others in the mix. One of the other 3 clubs joined up thinking they would have about 5 girls ended up with 0 .

Two of our local clubs band together the girls age group Rugby - Winchester and Estleigh play as Winchleigh. One GDaughter (15yo) trains at Winchester, the other(13yo) at Eastleigh !!

[laurent]

Mike Marchent has convinced my Grandaughter to have a try at SH (she's been playing Flanker). She's also just received her Hampshire kit, so she's a happy Bunny atm. Main problem is that her games keep getting called off for bad weather or oppos failing to get a side out.

And she's just got her Black Belt in Karate (as did her older sister).

Good for her.

Sadly it's hard to get any underage setup; our U18 team is mainly populated with our club's girls with 3 others in the mix. One of the other 3 clubs joined up thinking they would have about 5 girls ended up with 0 .

Two of our local clubs band together the girls age group Rugby - Winchester and Estleigh play as Winchleigh. One GDaughter (15yo) trains at Winchester, the other(13yo) at Eastleigh !!

Here the girls play with the boys as far as U14 (girls U15) our club is very active with one Highschool as the Underage coach is a PE there. We have good numbers up to U14/15 now that he is established there.
The U18 girls is the first time around we have numbers above 14/15 coming through rugby school. We should have U16 boys next season (likely with another club).
Our U14 this year are running a second team 1st play 15 2nds play 10 and that is a first.

The club is struggling with volunteers number (a lot come from the high school teachers and 2 primary school teachers who have kids in the club). with the french system it's hard for normally employed people to be available (rugby school runs on Wednesday afternoon).

Most french club struggle and merge at underage bar the biggest.

[Ovals]

Mike Marchent has convinced my Grandaughter to have a try at SH (she's been playing Flanker). She's also just received her Hampshire kit, so she's a happy Bunny atm. Main problem is that her games keep getting called off for bad weather or oppos failing to get a side out.

And she's just got her Black Belt in Karate (as did her older sister).

Good for her.

Sadly it's hard to get any underage setup; our U18 team is mainly populated with our club's girls with 3 others in the mix. One of the other 3 clubs joined up thinking they would have about 5 girls ended up with 0 .

Two of our local clubs band together the girls age group Rugby - Winchester and Estleigh play as Winchleigh. One GDaughter (15yo) trains at Winchester, the other(13yo) at Eastleigh !!

She was back at Openside Flanker last weekend playing in Oxford. Scored a hat trick and got PoM.

[Raggs]

Good for her.

Sadly it's hard to get any underage setup; our U18 team is mainly populated with our club's girls with 3 others in the mix. One of the other 3 clubs joined up thinking they would have about 5 girls ended up with 0 .

Two of our local clubs band together the girls age group Rugby - Winchester and Estleigh play as Winchleigh. One GDaughter (15yo) trains at Winchester, the other(13yo) at Eastleigh !!

She was back at Openside Flanker last weekend playing in Oxford. Scored a hat trick and got PoM.

Congrats! Awesome that she's doing well.

Had what has felt like 2 good sessions with my boys the past 2 weeks. Still a long way from perfect, but almost all coming along nicely. Trying to get the big carriers to pass more, and the rest too really. Trying to get the senior players, who aren't spending all their brain power in simply trying to follow the basics of the game, to communicate a bit more in defence and attack, seems to be working a little.

Best moment though, was the likely dyspraxic (strongly suspected, just doesn't yet have the diagnosis) kid scoring his first try in a game (training, but still good). Been building him up nicely, he's now fairly good at carrying a bit (biggish lad), and he successfully made a tackle (on a little lad, facing the wrong way and trying to pick the ball up, but it all counts!) too. He really works hard to just catch the ball, so it's really impressive seeing him go for it.

Just got to try and get some of the smaller/gentler ones to get stuck in a bit more, we'll keep working with them, it'll hopefully come.

They're all in year 7 now, so new schools, and a lot of them are really struggling (some serious bullying issues), they find some respite in the team.

[Ovals]

Two of our local clubs band together the girls age group Rugby - Winchester and Estleigh play as Winchleigh. One GDaughter (15yo) trains at Winchester, the other(13yo) at Eastleigh !!

She was back at Openside Flanker last weekend playing in Oxford. Scored a hat trick and got PoM.

Congrats! Awesome that she's doing well.

Had what has felt like 2 good sessions with my boys the past 2 weeks. Still a long way from perfect, but almost all coming along nicely. Trying to get the big carriers to pass more, and the rest too really. Trying to get the senior players, who aren't spending all their brain power in simply trying to follow the basics of the game, to communicate a bit more in defence and attack, seems to be working a little.

Best moment though, was the likely dyspraxic (strongly suspected, just doesn't yet have the diagnosis) kid scoring his first try in a game (training, but still good). Been building him up nicely, he's now fairly good at carrying a bit (biggish lad), and he successfully made a tackle (on a little lad, facing the wrong way and trying to pick the ball up, but it all counts!) too. He really works hard to just catch the ball, so it's really impressive seeing him go for it.

Just got to try and get some of the smaller/gentler ones to get stuck in a bit more, we'll keep working with them, it'll hopefully come.

They're all in year 7 now, so new schools, and a lot of them are really struggling (some serious bullying issues), they find some respite in the team.

Good work. Sounds like you're making great progress. Brilliant that you're getting some success with a lad who is Dyspraxic - that's a huge handicap in sport.

One of the keys with the youths seems to be getting them to stop being tentative. I watched our younger GD play for the u14s at the weekend. It was a mud bath. They did OK but lost 10-0 - against a slightly bigger side - but too often they stood back and let the oppo steal the ball. I guess it is all about confidence but it is really hard to get them to really 'go for it' and not hold back. Having said that, they tackled really well - just couldn't get out of their own half without losing the ball - they spent the entire 2nd half in their own half without conceding a try !

[Raggs]

Good work. Sounds like you're making great progress. Brilliant that you're getting some success with a lad who is Dyspraxic - that's a huge handicap in sport.

One of the keys with the youths seems to be getting them to stop being tentative. I watched our younger GD play for the u14s at the weekend. It was a mud bath. They did OK but lost 10-0 - against a slightly bigger side - but too often they stood back and let the oppo steal the ball. I guess it is all about confidence but it is really hard to get them to really 'go for it' and not hold back. Having said that, they tackled really well - just couldn't get out of their own half without losing the ball - they spent the entire 2nd half in their own half without conceding a try !

We seem to have an inordinate number of kids who just aren't very aggressive/determined! However, they're all slowly improving, and getting there. Sometimes it just clicks for them, and suddenly they jump forward in confidence, others are a slower affair. There's one who when he's on it, will throw himself in and tackle our biggest carrier, on other days he'll "accidentally" step out of the way of making a tackle on the smallest.

Had a funny moment at the weekend, one of the kids was convinced I got the call wrong on a lineout possession. I told him the ref is always right, even when he's wrong, and if he thinks somethings not right, he should go out there and fix it in the game. He got furious, proceeded to ragdoll the biggest carrier we have to the ground, then made the next tackle, then the next one and blasted over the ruck (didn't quite turn it over), and then grabbed the guy who did pick it up and tackle him off the other side of the pitch from the original incident! Talk about taking it out of the refs hands!

[assfly]

One of the kids in my mini-rugby clubs died in a freak accident this week.
I was chatting with the dad and watching his son and mine train together on Saturday morning. Then on Monday evening he was his by a car outside their house and died on the way to the hospital. 5 years old ffs. The happiest kid I've ever seen, he had a permanent smile on his face.
He's being buried in his rugby kit and scrumcap at the family home on Monday.

Sorry for putting a downer on such a nice topic. It's been a rough week, and I've got to pull my shit together for training on Saturday morning.

[laurent]

One of the kids in my mini-rugby clubs died in a freak accident this week.
I was chatting with the dad and watching his son and mine train together on Saturday morning. Then on Monday evening he was his by a car outside their house and died on the way to the hospital. 5 years old ffs. The happiest kid I've ever seen, he had a permanent smile on his face.
He's being buried in his rugby kit and scrumcap at the family home on Monday.

Sorry for putting a downer on such a nice topic. It's been a rough week, and I've got to pull my shit together for training on Saturday morning.

Sorry to ear this. You and his family have all my condolences.
I hope you can pull together and keep the spirit up for the other kids that will probably need to cheer up as well. (they will likely help cheer you up too)

[assfly]

Sorry to ear this. You and his family have all my condolences.
I hope you can pull together and keep the spirit up for the other kids that will probably need to cheer up as well. (they will likely help cheer you up too)

Thanks. Yea I'll do my best and I'll probably feel better for it.

[Raggs]

One of the kids in my mini-rugby clubs died in a freak accident this week.
I was chatting with the dad and watching his son and mine train together on Saturday morning. Then on Monday evening he was his by a car outside their house and died on the way to the hospital. 5 years old ffs. The happiest kid I've ever seen, he had a permanent smile on his face.
He's being buried in his rugby kit and scrumcap at the family home on Monday.

Sorry for putting a downer on such a nice topic. It's been a rough week, and I've got to pull my shit together for training on Saturday morning.

I'm so sorry. You must be devastated, and I simply can't imagine how his father feels, I'd be broken.

Wish I could give you advice, but there's really nothing to say. One of the coaches/dad passed away at my club a few years back, the club introduced an award in his name. Maybe see if something like that could be done, for the child that had the most enjoyment in the session?

[Ovals]

One of the kids in my mini-rugby clubs died in a freak accident this week.
I was chatting with the dad and watching his son and mine train together on Saturday morning. Then on Monday evening he was his by a car outside their house and died on the way to the hospital. 5 years old ffs. The happiest kid I've ever seen, he had a permanent smile on his face.
He's being buried in his rugby kit and scrumcap at the family home on Monday.

Sorry for putting a downer on such a nice topic. It's been a rough week, and I've got to pull my shit together for training on Saturday morning.

Jeez, that's heart breaking. My condolences to all involved.

[dpedin]

One of the kids in my mini-rugby clubs died in a freak accident this week.
I was chatting with the dad and watching his son and mine train together on Saturday morning. Then on Monday evening he was his by a car outside their house and died on the way to the hospital. 5 years old ffs. The happiest kid I've ever seen, he had a permanent smile on his face.
He's being buried in his rugby kit and scrumcap at the family home on Monday.

Sorry for putting a downer on such a nice topic. It's been a rough week, and I've got to pull my shit together for training on Saturday morning.

I have been in a similar position and it is both heartbreaking but heart warming when you see the rugby community come together in such sad sad circumstances. It will be tough for everyone but especially for you on Saturday morning when you see the wee faces all looking at you. You will do well and provide the kids with a perfect example whatever you do. Good luck mate and stuff a few hankies in your pockets.

[Ovals]

On a brighter note - James Haskell sent my Grand Daughter an, encouraging, personalised video message. She was really made up with it.

[assfly]

Cheers for the comments lads. The idea of the club doing something is a great idea, I'll raise it when the dust settles.

[Slick]

One of the kids in my mini-rugby clubs died in a freak accident this week.
I was chatting with the dad and watching his son and mine train together on Saturday morning. Then on Monday evening he was his by a car outside their house and died on the way to the hospital. 5 years old ffs. The happiest kid I've ever seen, he had a permanent smile on his face.
He's being buried in his rugby kit and scrumcap at the family home on Monday.

Sorry for putting a downer on such a nice topic. It's been a rough week, and I've got to pull my shit together for training on Saturday morning.

This is awful mate, really sorry to hear it. Just terrible.

Love Raggs idea for when the time comes.

[assfly]

He was buried yesterday in a small ceremony on the family's land in the bush, just outside Nairobi. It was gut-wrenchingly sad.

The father is going to set up a foundation in his name, to encourage children of the same ages from local townships to take up rugby. We are also going to have a tournament in a few months in his name, perhaps to launch the foundation.

I love the idea of the award, thanks Raggs.

It's amazing to see how rugby can turn such a tragic event into a positive legacy.

[laurent]

This sounds like a great idea.

Best of luck with it.

[Raggs]

Just back from a school festival for my age group, trying to drum up some more members, as well as watch my boy play. Unsurprisingly, most the best athletes are already spoken for, but hopefully picked up a few more. Did make me happy to see that despite not playing any matches for school (unlike a few of the other schools), the team with the greatest representation from our club, were the "winners" not losing any of their games. The fact it was also my boys school helped that be better too!

[Slick]

Not sure if I've mentioned that my daughter started "training" this year with the U6's at the club and absolutely loves it - far more than the boy. Every team we play in the U8's that my boy is in seems to have a girl or two and there were 4 at our U6's last week.

Anyway, one of the local clubs, Stew Mel, is hosting a training and games day just for girls on Sunday which we are going to. I think it's a brilliant initiative - they have invited girls from clubs all over the local area to all come together and train/play together. To be honest, I'm a bit pissed off with our club that I had to hear it through a parent at a different club as no one had sent the message to the age group coaches, but nonetheless, looking forward to it.