U8's Rugby

Keswick Under 8's travelled to Egremont with a strong squad of 9 players for their first tournament of the season on Sunday. In mild and sunny conditions they faced teams from Penrith, Cockermouth, Egremont, St. Benedicts and Wigton in back to back matches of 5 minutes each way.
The team has increased it's numbers from last season with a couple of new players at the tail end of last season and a couple this season, so the 7 a side format meant a bit of squad rotation had to be employed. However, everyone played in all the games, only sitting out for a couple of minutes at a time.
All the games were fast paced and high scoring with some exceptional running on display. It didn't take those who played last year long to get used to the more crowded pitch as team size is increased from 4 players to 6/7 this year. Similarly, the new players soon found there feet and contributed well in their first proper game.
The Keswick players' understanding of the game was on show as they learnt to press up in defence and tag the opposition behind the gain line, often pushing the attacking side well back towards their own try line, while in attack they were often confident enough with their skill set to pass before being tagged to help find space away from a sometimes crowded area. When space was found, and often when there was no space, some brilliant mazy running was rewarded with lots of tries.
While at this age the scores aren't kept and the emphasis is on learning and having fun, Keswick certainly scored more tries than they conceded throughout a very enjoyable morning of rugby.
Training for Under 7/8's continues this Sunday morning at 10.30am at the Rugby Club. All new players welcome.