We have now fixed a rescheduled time for the Peterborough Girls Rugby taster session:
Friday 8th June, 6pm – 7pm
This session will be just before the Summer Touch Rugby league starts and the girls will be welcome to take part in that event as well.
This event is an opportunity for girls of any ability/experience to try out either contact or non-contact forms of rugby ahead of next season.
Please forward this on to anyone you think might be interested.
Unfortunately we have had to cancel this event due to the heavy rain over night causing waterlogged pitches.
We will try to run this event again late in the summer, ahead of the new season but in the meantime if there is interest in playing in the Summer Touch Rugby Leagues please contact us through the website.
Due to the bad weather, the U7s & U8s training is off this morning, but the end of season presentations will still go ahead from 11:30.
The coaches for the other squads are still going to be on site but training may reflect the poor weather conditions.
Don’t forget this Sunday is the last Academy training session of the 2011/12 season.
As is traditional for the end of season day we will be running some fun games and an open touch game where parents will be encouraged to don their trainers and show the kids how its done; non-participation will only be accepted with a valid doctor’s note!
Awards presentation and BBQ from 12pm.
This Sunday we will be running a Girls’ rugby taster session at Fengate for ages 10+, from complete beginners to experienced players.
The event will be run by experienced RFU coaches and split into groups of U15s, U13s and beginners, running through training drills and fun matches. We’re also happy to be able to welcome Market Harborough Vixens U13s and ONs U13s for a bit of extra competitive flair.
This event will be followed up with a Girls team in the Summer Rugby league and Girls squads for 2012/13.
BBQ and Bar available.
Peterborough Lions U7 – Wellingborough Festival 22nd April 2012
‘What ifs, near misses & could haves’
With the forecast looking slightly more favourable than the past week’s daily downpours and perhaps the chance of a dry sunny day a squad of nine U7s complete with young Hugo Jenkins (a distant relation to kicking legend Neil no doubt) eager to step up into the squad next year and our new recruit Samuel Neath (almost Welsh) all made our way down to Wellingborough.
Once again, the U7 pitches were as far from the clubhouse as feasibly possible without being in the adjoining farmland and we all gradually assembled at our base camp where the boys soon found the grave of some poor unfortunate rat that had been interned under a nearby tree. Once we’d pulled a few of the boys from the aforementioned tree we got to work getting them focussed on the task in hand. Kick off at 10:00, first game against our hosts Wellingborough Whites. However, there were a few players and parents conspicuous by their absence and I’m not sure if the previous evening’s entertainment had something to do with that!!
Game 1 v Wellingborough Whites
As we’ve seen a few times this past season the first half seemed to be a wake-up call for our boys and perhaps the long ride down had not given us the time to really get our act together? With tries coming from both teams in succession the half time score was 4:3 to the cubs. After only a couple of training sessions it was clear that Samuel had plenty of talent and this was evident throughout his first game and with hands that seemed to stick to any approaching opposition tag he quickly earned himself his own ‘Velcro’ label. Realising they needed to take things up a gear and secure a win the cubs found their rhythm in the 2nd half producing four more tries including a well worked debut try for ‘Velcro’ and some excellent dynamism from ‘Banzai!’ Another handful of tries from ‘Speedy Heels’ Sutton, took his season tally into an incredible treble figures. Whites could only muster a single try in response giving the cubs a solid 8:4 win and 5 points.
Game 2 v St Ives
Finally up to our full complement with the arrival of Morgan ‘the Sidestep’ Rosser we once again faced St Ives who’d given us a bit of trouble at recent friendly and festival meetings. This was a tight match with both teams defending well and scoring breakaway tries ending in a 5:5 draw. A fair result but one the cubs should have won. Instead missing out on another 5pt win with 3pts going to each team and throwing the table wide open. Now we needed to win our next 2 games.
Game 3 v Towcester
Towcester were an unknown and this would be our first encounter but having seen them lose both their first 2 games we went on to the pitch quietly confident. Well drilled and dogged in defence, Towcester were no push-over. Instead, encouraged by an ‘enthusiastic’ shadower they produced some good 1st half tries but the Lions were the stronger team with the score 5:3 at the break. Using our slight size advantage there were some good running tries from Charlie ‘The Mad Hatter’ Cooper and Harry ‘Run Forrest’ Nicholls who appeared to have been watching Benjamin ‘Basher’ Groves too closely and mistook the halfway line for the tryline – this time he didn’t run far enough!! Not to forget a few more for our centurion, ‘Speedy Heels’. Lions coming out just 1 ahead in this 8:7 try-fest, just enough to clinch another 5 pts and put Towcester to bed.
Game 4 v Northampton Old Scouts
Throughout the pool matches we’d watched OS make mincemeat of their opposition winning their 3 games by 6-try margins throughout. Clearly, OS were going to finish in the top 2 and it would be the final pool match against the Lions that would decide who would be playing for the Cup and who’d be fighting for 3rd & 4th place in the Plate final. Knowing that our small squad had already played a lot of rugby that morning we knew it would be a tough call against a full 12 strong OS squad who had the advantage of 3 extra sets of fresh legs. Each little lion cub played their hearts out but the strength of the OS team showed at half-time with score 5:2 to OS. With an uphill climb ahead of them, the cubs fought back in the 2nd half to close the gap but a late flourish by OS – or rather their own ‘speedy heels’ – took the game out of reach and it finished 10-4. Once again OS had ended 6 tries clear.
Plate Final: Peterborough Lions v Peterborough (!!)
With the field clearing and the day drawing to a close we had 1 more game to play and if this had been for the Rugby World Cup it wouldn’t have mattered more. Knowing that we were playing for pride as much as the Plate we gave each of the cubs as much encouragement as humanly possible and sent them out to face city neighbours ‘Boro. Again, we were the victim of a larger squad. All the talent and skills shown by every one of our cubs was just no match against an opposition which ‘man for man’ had clearly had less game play than our brave cubs. A flurry of breakaway tries in the 1st half had all but quashed our hopes with the scoreline 5:1 to ‘Boro. Giving everything they could offer the cubs fought back in the 2nd half with 4 well deserved tries but ‘Boro kept their distance with 4 more of their own coming out 9:5 winners at the final whistle.
At the end of the day, 4th place from 10 teams was a great outcome and the 2011-12 U7s have another piece of ‘silverware’ (or melamine) for the trophy cabinet. Once again, the cubs gave 110% and we couldn’t have asked for more. ‘Thank you’ to all the parents for making the trip and helping out both on and off the pitch. Next year we’ll be a little stronger, a bit wiser and hopefully have a few more in the squad to give young legs an occasional rest.
See you all next Sunday for our end of season bash and then I guess I’ll have no excuses for not getting those jobs done around the house, DOH!
Adie.
Another U13s fixture that went under the radar!
Deepings U13s are visiting us this Sunday so please arrive in good time for a 10am warm up and 10:30 kick-off.
And don’t forget to bring some family down to support the lads!
Peterborough Lions U7 at Stamford Festival – 01.04.12
Debutant Shows Star Talent
The young Lion cubs were determined not to be any April Fools as we made our way in bright but chilly sunshine to our neighbours at Stamford. Following last week’s excellent training with Heritage Park we arrived bright and early for a day’s exciting rugby. With bonus points, a cup and a shield up for grabs the 9 players including our newest addition, a lively and very enthusiastic Oliver Thorne, had it all to play for. Like our U8 counterparts we had been drawn with Stamford Bears, Kettering B and Sleaford.
Game 1 v Stamford Bears
Being first onto pitch 1 we had only a little time to get warmed up but the cubs by now knew the drill; defend like demons and score lots of tries. The first half got off to a slow start for both teams as they weighed each other up…or were they all just waking up? With 1 try each for Harry ‘Run Forrest’ Nicholls & Dylan ‘The Hunter’ Elding and 1 in reply from Stamford the score was 2:1 at the half time break.
The 2nd half was a thrilling 5 minutes of running rugby and showed the home-side supporters what we’d be doing over the last 12 months since our last visit. It was also an opportunity to bring on young Ollie and see how he’d fair in a match situation. The Tag section coaches who had seen Ollie train with the U6s could tell there was a rugby player in there just waiting to come out and he eagerly joined the action on his full Lions debut. Our thoughts were totally confirmed as he donned his now trademark white headband and immediately took ownership of the field. Superb running, tagging and tussling for the ball in somewhat kamikaze style has earned himself the title ‘Banzai!’ With 2 tries from the ubiquitous Ben ‘Speedy Heels’ Sutton, 1 more for Harry ‘Run Forrest’ and an absolutely fantastic effort from half way for the ever-improving Jack ‘The Hat Mc’ Varty. Just 1 try coming from the Bears the score finished 7:3 giving the Lions maximum points and the best of starts in the competition.
Game 2 v Kettering B
Following the pool schedule, the cubs assembled to meet Kettering B who had just played and lost to a stronger Sleaford team. The fresher Cubs having had an hour or so to regroup before taking to the field could use this to their advantage. The first half was a lively affair with 2 more tries for Ben and 2 for Charlie ‘the Mad Hatter’ keeping our opponents trailing 4:2 at half time.
With ‘Banzai!’ Thorne’s flowing locks held back in his headband we watched in awe as the new cub rejoined the action for the 2nd half weaving his way around the field desperate to get the ball and run with it. His wishes were soon realised when he took the ball inside his own half and ran. As the parents screamed with encouragement we were delighted to see him dodging taggers to go over the line and score a fantastic first try. Other 2nd half highlights included a real-time-slow-motion sidestep from Benjamin ‘Basher’ Groves which almost fooled everyone as he made a break up the middle only to get tagged but off-loaded to supporting team-mates. Banzai! Thorne, along with everyone else on and off the field, was disappointed not to have been awarded a second try after a blinding run up the right hand touch line only to be pulled back for putting a foot in touch by a linesman who not only was still at the other end of the pitch but was also behind me! How he managed to see anything up that line amazes me – maybe he has x-ray eyes? Unfortunately, our new hero ‘Banzai!’ Thorne had a true rugby welcome when he suffered a clash of heads and had to leave the field with a bleeding nose.
Support-play, defensive- line, forward-running, switching direction and staying on-side have all improved greatly over the last few months. These factors all helped toward another 2 tries for Harry ‘Run Forrest’ and keeping our opponents at bay with only 1 try in response. The game ended 7:3 and another maximum point win.
Game 3 v Sleaford
Having seen Sleaford beat both out our previous opponents we headed into game 3 knowing that a win was needed to progress through to the cup knockout stages and the guys went out with all guns blazing to seal the game in the first half. A second try for Dylan ‘The Hunter’ Elding, 2 more for Charlie ‘The Mad Hatter’ and 1 more for Ben ‘Speedy Heels’ set us up well with the half time score 4:2 to the Lions.
The 2nd half was about containment and our cubs did exactly that. Sleaford were held to their 2 first half tries with dogged defence and some excellent tagging. Just to secure the result, Ben ‘Speedy Heels’ ran in 2 more tries and it looked like he was out to get his century of tries this season. Coming to Stamford he was on an 89 try count and over the 3 pool games he’d taken that figure up to 96. With potentially 2 more games to play there was an odds-on chance he’d get the 4 he needed to take his tally into 3 digits.
Another outstanding performance from the cubs, ending the game 6:2 , meant they had secured a place in the cup semi-final against our nemesis, Huntingdon. Stags being the only team to give us any real trouble over the past season, although they do have a squad of 20-odd players to help them do it.
Semi-Final v Huntingdon Stags
After a brief rest the Lions made their way back onto the field to face the Stags which we knew was not going to be an easy encounter. Stags are a well-drilled outfit and defended their ground well. Equally so did our cubs and the first half was tight affair with each team not wanting to let in any tries. This game was much more physical than our previous 3 matches and Stags were obviously playing to some ‘contact festival rules’ that we weren’t made aware of. The referee rightly pulling them up on throwing tags down instead of handing them back as our boys were doing. However, the cubs managed to sneak a glimmer of hope at the half-time mark after 2 excellent tries from Dylan ‘The Hunter’ Elding and William ‘Bomber’ Rouse with only 1 from Stags. Half-time, 2:1 to Lions.
The 2nd half downhill slope would hopefully give the Lions a slight advantage as our small squad were beginning to feel the effects of the pace of the first half. Stags on the other hand had a full complement of players to add fresh legs to their team. It was also obvious that they had been given a stern talking to at half-time as they came out with one clear vision – defend at all costs. On several occasions the cubs were bowled over when they were heading for tries and we suffered a few injuries as a result. Despite 2 more superb tries from Ben ‘Speedy Heels’ Sutton the cubs were not able to hold onto their lead and the Stags gained a 1 try advantage. With time running against the Lions the game ended 5:4 to Stags and our festival was over. With a shield competition for pool runners up only the cubs had nothing to show for what had been an excellent morning’s rugby.
The score-line perhaps rightly reflected that the better team won but it was the manner in which that victory was gained that left our players and supporters feeling very disappointed. As we found at Market Harborough, festival matches tend to be more physical than our weekly fixtures. It appeared that Stags were able to draw on their older, larger players to give them a size advantage and this can only come with numbers. The proud Lion cubs left the field knowing that they played their very best and in the spirit of the game.
Meantime, Stags went on to beat Deepings in the final.
Enjoy the weekend off over Easter and look forward to seeing you all again on the 15th to help run off those Easter eggs!
A Groves.
For the 2012/2013 season Peterborough Lions Academy will be collaborating with PRUFC Ladies to establish girls U15 and U13 squads; please see our draft charter to see what we’re aiming to achieve and please contact us if you have a passion to get involved.
We’re going to kick this initiative off by running a Taster day on Sunday 29th April and entering a squad in the Peterborough Summer Touch Rugby league.
Now you can follow Peterborough Lions Rugby Academy on Twitter; @LionsYouthRugby
