Old Alleynians RFC

Playing on the Twickenham turf the high point of a season of record numbers.

The under 9s squad gathered in September Sunday sunshine in bigger numbers than ever. We were full of hope and expectation for the season stretching ahead of us and our first foray into ‘contact rugby’. It was a wonderful start, with the children amazing us with their tackling technique - a real endorsement of the RFU’s gradual approach through tag rugby. The ground was hard though, but we had goose poo to cushion the impact.

The autumn festivals went quite well, with some of enthusiastic tacklers making a big difference and others taking a while to warm up to contact rugby. At this point the weather turned; at a stormy Foxbury we nearly lost our beautiful new gazebo as it flew away into deepest Eltham. In retrospect this was portentous.

At Christmas a group of players and coaches had the opportunity to turn out at HQ, which was enormous fun and saw some brilliant play by OAs on the Twickenham turf. Into January, as the rain set in, and the puddles swelled off the South circular, the U9s went on the road. DSG was our usual home, but even the well-irrigated climes of central Dulwich were not impervious to the flood. We were grateful for the return of festivals in February and we sent considerable numbers to play at Colfes, Foxbury, Blackheath and Beccs. There were some great performances and, if we had been keeping score, some favourable results. The lack of consistent training through the winter did affect some of our performances but, on the whole, the players were in good shape and all of them are now very able with ball in hand, passing, running into space and tackling. We need to work on defensive organisation and speedy distribution in attack.

We were to sad not to go on tour to Cheddar in April - we had 98 confirmed for the trip - but we are hoping to make it happen at some point. There is enormous talent and enthusiasm in this group of kids and we are all excited about the seasons ahead. Most of all we are looking forward to getting back to our club.