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Overview

I thought I would take this opportunity to drop you a line on behalf of the coaching team and bring you up to date with our thoughts of the season so far.

We have now been playing for nine weeks since the start of the season and am delighted to confirm that as an age group, we now have over forty children aged under seven, regularly attending our training sessions on a Sunday morning. This is by far the largest age group at Trojans and am led to believe in Hampshire and possibly the South of England.

It is fantastic, not only for the Club, but also for the game of Rugby that so many kids have finally woken up to playing with the right shape ball and long may it continue!

As a coach I have the privilege to be part of the training sessions and to see how much all the children really enjoy themselves, taking part in all of the training drills to the best of their abilities, all with big smiles on their faces whilst trying to pick up the concept of a game that is completely different to anything they would have learnt at school.

Until now, I never knew how much the game of ‘bulldog’ really means so much!...

Even though some of the children have only been playing the game of Rugby a very short time, it amazes me, even at this early stage how much they have all developed and learned as a group already.

You may have noticed that we have recently been joined by four more ‘willing’ adults who have offered their services to help with the coaching. Can I take this opportunity to thank Andrew Bridges, Fabrice Castres, Mike Barnes and Cliff Atkinson for their kind offers of assistance.

If there are any more parents who would like to become involved with the coaching or even refereeing, you are all more than welcome. Any of you that are interested please speak to any of the coaching team and we will start the process rolling for this season.

At the beginning of the season, the coaches stated it was our intention to ensure that all the children who are aged over six have the opportunity to play in tournaments or club matches, regardless of ability or experience and am please to confirm that of the 30 children eligible, all have at least played in one club match, with many also experiencing tournaments already this season.

For the Year 1 children who will reach the age of six during the season and in the opinion of the coaches have developed enough to be able to play a match, it is the coaches intention to let these players have the experience to play in at least one match during the season.

Looking forward to next season, we are starting the process of looking for volunteers to take over the U/7’s team as all the coaches and manager (Anita) will be moving up to the U/8’s.

If any of you would like to find out what is involved in either the team management or coaching with the view of taking over or becoming involved with the Trojans U/7 team for 2009/10 season please let us know.

Coaches Xmas Pub Crawl

Continuing with tradition, the Coaches will be visiting a few of the Pubs in Southampton on the evening of Friday 5th December to celebrate the Xmas festivities.

You never know but you may get to see Twiddle Diddy (Mike Barnes) strut his funky stuff on the dance floor of ‘flairs’.

If any of the Dads who would like to view join us for a few beers and informal review of the season so far are quite welcome to join us!

Trojans Tournament

I am sure that you are all aware that the Trojans Tournament was a great success both from a playing and fund-raising perspective.

On the playing front, I am delighted to announce that both the teams we entered played extremely well and did us all proud!...

A special mention must go to the ‘Lions’ team who throughout the day, scored 28 tries whilst only conceding 6 in all the matches they played, eventually beating a useful Andover side 4-3 in the final, scoring the winning try with the last play of the match!..

May I take this opportunity to thank you to all for you support and providing all those lovely cakes for the ‘older sisters’-Georgia South, Ellie Chaffy, Ellie Turner and Abi Randell to sell and raise over £125!... A big ‘THANK YOU’ girls.

Interestingly, I think this could have been £140 as I know all four of them were not feeling to well later in the evening after ‘unofficially’ volunteering to test every type of cake to ensure it was edible by you all!

Another ‘thank you’ must to our pitch marshals for the day, Ray Chaffy, John MacDonald, Cliff Atkinson and Andrew Bridges.

International Tickets

As we all know or I do anyway, tickets for any of the England Internationals at Twickenham are as rare as it is to get Darron Christopher or Mark Newman (Coaches!) to buy a round!

Occasionally, through Trojans RFC, I may be able to get my ‘grubby little mits’ on a few for the parents of this age group.

The fairest way to distribute these would be by a ‘mini’ lottery drawn from a hat with the names of all those people interested in attending included.

There may be a draw for a pair for the South Africa game on the 22nd November and the New Zealand game on the 29th November.

Although not cheap (£60-£80 per ticket), the Twickenham experience is well worth the money in my opinion.

Watch this space for further details.

We are still awaiting confirmation as to whether the club has been allocated the tickets for the Italy game.

Dates for the Diary to Feb 09

16th November — Training session (home)

23rd November — Match against Romsey (home)

30th November — Match against Basingstoke (home)

5th December — Coaches Xmas Pub Crawl

7th December —Training session (home)

13th December — Childrens Xmas Party 11am-1pm

14th December — Match against US Portsmouth (home)

10th January — Harlequins v’s Worchester Curtain raiser cup

11th January — Match against Newbury (home)

18th January — Training session (home)

25th January—Match against New Milton (away)

Kind regards

Mark Randell

Coach

Trojans U/7

E-Mail  web@trojansrugby.co.uk or phone the Club on 023 8061 2400 (Bar) 023 8061 3068 (Admin)      

This page last updated:  04 April, 2009