Junior Colts Rugby 1

13 December 2018Jim Ganley

Mr Smith, Mr Griffiths, & I would like to thank all of the 8s & 9s that participated in Rugby in Term 1. It was great to work with such an eager group that appeared to relish each challenge the season presented. Battling not only their opponents & the elements, most of them were also taking on the challenge of learning a very complex new sport. We had great numbers this year. In fact, we had had to play a few modified forms of the game against many of our opponents at their request because they were much lower in numbers than we were. These small-sided games on a full field may have put us at bit of a disadvantage because of our lack of experience, so although we had a number of close well fought games, we were not collecting the wins we had hoped for. The boys had to face some really tough & experienced opponents early on in their rugby careers, namely St. George’s & Shawnigan. They competed well in a 7s tournament at St Michaels, fielding both A & B sides. The boys applied the lessons learned there & traveled to the Mainland to play Collingwood in a very soggy match that could have gone either way. We saw a lot of character growth in that match, as the boys felt it slipped away from them unjustly. Rugby is a very complex game to learn from scratch. Slowly but surely, the boys improved each training session, learning from their losses & applying their lessons to the next challenger. They finally put all the pieces together against St. George’s in our last game. No modifications were needed & players were having to make key decisions on the field with little input from the coaches on the sideline. It was finally a proper game of rugby & they pulled off a win on the last play of the game in front of a number of loud St. George’s supporters on their home ground. I would like to thank Mr. Griffiths & Mr. Smith for all their help & guidance this season. We sincerely hope that we see all of these young men on the rugby pitch again in the future. Mr Doug Branchflower

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