Saxons Shine in the Rain

That was a great session Saxons. We knew the weather was going to be appalling, we knew we were going to get wet and cold and yet you arrived in force (24 players!) matching the best turnout of the year! You must like it muddy and wet. Well done to the players and thank you parents/grand parents.

We proved that it doesn't matter about the rain, we can run and attack, pass and support, tackle and cover whatever the weather. We played touch rugby today to keep everyone involved and moving. It was fast and furious but there was purpose to it. Rugby is still a game of running and evasion, passing and attacking. Touch rugby encourages that and we saw some great runs, good support play with players offloading in the tackle and passing to players in space. You were passing the ball down the line, exploiting overlaps and scoring in the corners. If attacks weren't working, you were switching sides and attacking the other side, stretching the defence.

It was filthy wet, yet your ball handling and passing was superb; considering the conditions the handling was awesome and there were very few handling errors, even with cold hands. Communication was much improved, I could hear players calling for the ball, showing support and encouragement.

We had players taking passes at pace, Liam taking a great pop pass and charging into space. Having the coaches playing on the wings worked well, with the ball being taken forward in the centre and then being worked to the wings. There was some wonderful quick hands, passing and one-two passing between coaches and players (lovely to see Jon and Oli working well together!) who clearly understood what the aim was. Aden J, Will R, Matthew C, Ben B and Oli K were all involved in the finishing of many tries but I think the Chats and Freddie B combo was particularly special.

There were no 'solo' tries scored today, every try scored relied on team effort, strong ball carriers taking charge of the ball, carrying it forward and offloading to another Saxon ready to carry it forwards. This is what we mean by 'support' play, players following the attacker in a good position to take the offload or pass, clear out in the ruck or bind on and drive in the maul. We need all Saxons to be good support players, decision makers and rugby players, able to defend and attack together.

There was lots of attacking rugby today and a few stood out as great support players, taking the ball forward themselves, then passing out nicely and following the attack to support again. Today’s try of the week came from a long and complicated attack, with many tackles, passes and runs. I saw the try scorer display such great game sense and determination throughout the session that it was no surprise they were in the right place at the right time to finish the try. Chats and Freddie worked a great move down the right hand side, but were tackled successfully and Chats, in desperation, passed the ball over his head to be collected by Harriet M, at pace who completed a difficult catch and drove over the line to score. Harriet fearlessly follows up many attacks and is always in a good position to receive the ball; awesome and a well deserved Try of the Week.

It was good to see Ben P and Tom W back after the Christmas break and both were straight back into the action. The conditions were difficult and I expected a lot of Saxons to fall by the wayside in the cold and wet, but you just kept going. One player stood out for me, right from the warm up with his energy, commitment and skill. Toby T was everywhere today, hungry for the ball, running some great attacking lines and then delivering superbly controlled passes unselfishly to players in attacking positions. I saw him do it against Portsmouth in the last match, so he was already on my radar for Player of the Week. In bulldog he committed to the tackle and took great delight in helping team-mates finish off a tackle, felling caught runners. Toby maintained his focus throughout the session and was often first up to take the ball at restarts. Great play today Toby, you are fearless and have a great pair of hands with the ball, well done Saxon Player of the Week; I am pleased we got the trophy to you at school today, thank you Conor L for relinquishing it.

I would like to welcome Finlay G to the Saxons, he was there at the start of the match, and given the conditions I didn’t get a chance to introduce him to the team properly. He already knows Ben B well and possibly some more of you and I am sure you will welcome him in. He is clearly a good sportsman already and we hope we get the chance to show him Saxons rugby and that he enjoys it.

We are training at home next week and will look to prepare the team for the competitions that we will face in the rest of the season. You will be pleased to know that Jon, Matt and I refreshed our RFU Rugby Ready qualifications at a course run at the club on the evening of Fri 17th. We are therefore well placed to run a refresher on tackling, ‘tower of power’ and rucking. The session will aim to cover that on Sunday, but also continue our theme of running, passing and attacking rugby. That is Saxons rugby, its fast, furious and fun.

I will not be there I am afraid, as I will be in Paris supporting England (hopefully not sticking it up their jumper and going up the middle!), but I will be wearing my Gosport shirt and coat (if I haven’t lost it) and thinking of you. Go Saxons!