Saxons and US Portsmouth make aquaintances

Hi Saxons,

Thank you for hosting US Portsmouth so well yesterday. They are our closest neighbours geographically (closer even than Fareham Heathens)and we hope to see more of them. They really enjoyed their visit and were impressed with the welcome and the standard of play of the Gosport U10 Saxons. The joint warm-up and small-sided games worked well, thank you coaches and I hope you enjoyed the variety whilst also picking up some skills and tactics to bring into your game.

For the matches we were able to provide two teams each. Thank you to Harvey J (good boy!), Max F and Conor L for volunteering to play with US Portsmouth to make up their numbers. Really good sportsmanship, right in the ethos of our game and I was really pleased to see US Portsmouth integrating you into their teams and using you. In fact you all looked really impressive and seemed to enjoy attacking the Saxons! Well done.

US Portsmouth are a strong side and they have plenty of strong confident players, so it was really great to see Saxons stepping up to the competition and showing your great teamwork, commitment and determination. The conditions were difficult with the wind, yet your handling was superb, your support play meant there was always a Saxon to pass to and your tackling was awesome, especially with players working together to down the big US runners. I only followed one team so can only comment on a few players, but what really struck me was your ability to maintain continuity in attack - strong runners making breaks supported well in the tackle and the ball passed out to fast finishers in space. It was a true all round team performance, with everyone contributing. It is clear you are getting to grips with understanding the new rules; we are no longer playing the ball when we are on the ground and off our feet, we are watching our numbers in the ruck and mauls (2 players per side) and we are confidently competing for the ball when it is in the hands of the opposition and they are showing us it! One area to work on for the next training session is protecting the ball as you take it into contact (if avoiding contact fails!)

Well done Saxons, I didn't award trophies this week as we had visitors, I saw loads of fantastic play, some great driving attacks, great defence, but one tackle absolutely stands out for those that saw it. US Portsmouth were fighting back from being behind and were level and their talented No 10 was driving down the left wing with no Saxon in front - I thought he was clear to score, but no. I have said this before that Liam will never let it go and he made an amazing text book cover tackle from behind on a player almost twice his size at full tilt. Amazing, and deservedly Pitchero Man of the Match for your try/game saving tackle/commitment. Well done Liam.

Next week we are at New Milton for a triangular with old friends Totton and I am equally pleased that there are Saxons involved with Rememberance Day Parades and events with other organisations away from rugby. Well done, I am sure there will be a pitch side silence at New Milton and the Saxons will be united in this.

With players and coaches away at New Milton and Remberance Day Parades, there will not be seperate coaching at home on Sunday. For some of our future consecutive away matches we will try and arrange coaching at home as we appreciate you may not be able or willing to travel every weekend. New Milton is a bit of a trek, but the whole club is going and there should be opportunities to car share as we visit a good New Forest Club.

Please let me know your availability for New Milton on Pitchero or by return e-mail if not yet signed up to Pitchero, as I need to let New Milton know how many to expect (so they can order the hot dogs!)

Thank you Saxons,

Very Proud of you

Tom and Elly