U10s Update - Weekend of 17/18 November 2018

At Anstey Park we had a squad of 13 players.
We also welcomed Seb, a new player to the squad. Welcome to the U10s Seb. We hope you enjoyed your first session.
The training session started with a game of touch rugby followed by a rucking drill.
Listening skills seemed to be a little bit of a challenge during the drill! So our Coaches decide to leave the boys in charge to play a game of rugby Quite quickly the boys asked for help. I think the point was made!
The session continued well with lots of great matches played. For the last 20 minutes the squad watched the U16's play. A great opportunity to watch and learn...which the boys enjoyed. No awards were made this week.

Meanwhile over at London Irish...
What a great day the squad had at the London Irish Experience.
Sunny & crisp!
A festival of 8 games followed by the opportunity to watch London Irish play Cornish Pirates @ Madejski Stadium.
A special thank you to Connor Furey ( Kian's big brother ) who ably assisted Paul on the day.

SCORES ON THE DOORS

• Alton V Windsor 1 - 2
• Alton V Witney 1 - 3
• Alton V Maidenhead 0 - 3
• Alton V Henley 0 - 3
• Alton V Trojans 2 - 1
• Alton V Farnborough 1 - 2
• Alton V Marlow 1 - 2

COACHES COMMENTS
The festival was organised with military precision and at the end of it the squad had all enjoyed themselves, especially Hannah who scored her first tournament try.

It had an 8 minute game format with no half time - so no subs during games.

A couple of narrow defeats to Windsor and Witney but Alton lost heavily to Maidenhead and Henley in the next two games. Once the team fell behind they seemed to forget the basics of how to run forward, not sideways, support attackers and for the attacker to pass the ball being wrapped up in a tackle.

After a bit of a re-group and team talk Alton then recorded a win against Trojans and ended with narrow defeats against a very big and fast Farnborough side and Marlow.

Areas to focus on:

• Offloading - especially against bigger players.
• Rucking - they have mastered presenting back and rucking over, but we need to work on claiming the ball.
• Moving as a unit -not leaving gaps in positioning after a scrum or free pass.
• Tackling - work on making the tackle early

rly.
The squad had some tough games as shown in the scores but their spirits remained high.
They all enjoyed the day and learnt from each of the games.

WELL DONE TO ALL OUR PLAYERS

At Madejski the squad attended a Q&A session with Tommy Bell - London Irish Full Back Player.

The squad were due to join the other clubs for the Guard of Honour but instead a surprise was in store...
Our players were asked to be ball boys & girls for the big match. They were on the pitch side lines for the whole match. A great experience and a duty that was carried out impeccably and should give them some life long memories.