I haven't been feeling good about the coaching thing at all this year. I haven't enjoyed it and I don't really feel like I'm needed. Last year there were two of us and that was pretty good although I felt slightly out of my depth. This year there are four of us and, frankly, the other three guys are way more technically skilled than me. There's ( Read more... )

I couldn't find a ref for the Nomads v Barbarians U16 game yesterday so I did it myself. 80 minutes of pretty hard work. It was a pre season friendly and both sides fielded squads of thirty or so. Normally the Barbs are on the stronger teams in the competition but our boys totally outplayed them. It was more a question of a lot of really good ( Read more... )

It shouldn't be this complicated. I'm trying to get things organised for an under 16s game on the weekend. I have to arrange for a field to be available, a referee, a physio and jerseys (currently with one of last year's coaches). I have to make sure everyone knows about (multiple communications channels) and can get to (carpool to be organised ( Read more... )

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I'm starting to think about next rugby season. I am going to be refereeing. That means job one is to be match fit by the start of May. I'm thinking that if I keep running four to five times/week, do a bit of skiing and maybe do some 'staircase' workouts, maybe twice per week, I should be in good shape to start getting in shape around the middle ( Read more... )

Michael Harvey supplied me with another great set of photos of the boys. This time they are from the semi-final and consolation final on the 28th September at Fletcher's.

Here are some samples:


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So we lost the semifinal by 7-5. We scored a try with no time left and the conversion kick went just under the bar. So it goes.

One of the parents took a bunch of photos with a much better camera than ours. Here are three samples. There are 51 pictures in the Flickr set.


( Read more... )

One of the parents took these:


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It was the U16 central divisional final. Win and we go to the provincial final four, lose and that's the end of the season. I had close to my ideal starting line up, by no means the norm in youth rugby given camp, family vacations, cottages, work etc. We started strong and stayed strong. Once we got a line break we diced them. Our defence; ( Read more... )