Dear Rugby Parents,

The touchline was looking very sparse yesterday morning as parents sought the warmth and comfort of the clubhouse on the coldest training session of the season so far. We lost a number of players throughout the session to frozen fingers and this seems like a good time to reiterate our advice from earlier in the season about cold weather rugby:

"As the weather gets progressively colder we suggest that players wear gloves and two pairs of socks as nothing is more distraction for young players than cold hands and feet. Hands withdrawn within the "hanging cuff" can neither catch nor pass so this is as important for player development as it is for comfort. I did see a few children at the weekend who seemed reluctant to get their hands and knees muddy; please reinforce to the children that mud is an integral and unavoidable part of the game (just like contact) and an aversion to getting wet and muddy is going to be a significant limiting factor in their international rugby careers!"

We were also very pleased to welcome our new team-mate, George Jones, a 50% increase on our already strong George quotient. George joins us from Beaconsfield RFC and showed he is already a very accomplished player and we look forward to getting to know him better as the weeks go by. We were also delighted to welcome our newest member of the coaching team, Coach Lizzie, who we are sure will encourage and inspire other parents to join in and help out on a Sunday morning. Welcome to both George and Lizzie!

Our payers of the week were the awesome Cameron, Rose & Kyrylo; well done to you all!

Our training session focused on two specific areas; breakdown options and ball retention, which we will recap below for anyone wanting to reinforce the points to their children before next week:
Breakdown Options (in order of priority):

• No opponent = Jackal: first player low over the ball, solid base, knees bent, hands on the ball, pick up and turn to own team
• Opponent in tackle area = Fire: first two players, low body position, driving over ball, clear out the opposition, if possible second player to guard ball and secure possession for nine to pass away
• Ball lost in ruck = Ice: join back line in defence, filtering out from breakdown to mark attackers

Ball Retention/Recycling:

• In attack – hold on tight, don’t get ripped, get the ball to ground, long and strong, ruck over and recycle
• In defence – look to hold the ball/player up, jackal, counter-ruck or drive into touch

Next week we have an away fixture against Beaconsfield and everyone who is available will travel. We do not yet know the format of the session or timings and this will be communicated as soon as we have the information. Please update your availability on Pitchero so we can get an idea of numbers and select sides in advance. The following week (18 Dec) will be our final session before Christmas and we will be visited by Santa for some expert training on our ho-ho-ho technique. We will be back training on 08 January for a busy second half of the season that includes fixtures or festivals at Wycombe, Aylesbury, Chesham & Marlow, not one but two Landrover Cup fixtures, our home development festival and our legendary end of season tour to Bognor Regis!

Look forward to seeing you all next week!

Regards,

DC
U11 AGO
A&C RFC
07929 019133