Elmhurst Boys at ISA London South U11 Tag Rugby Tournament 2017

24th February 2017 | Year 5

Team: Temu, Joseph, Jaylen, Joshua, Oscar, Lucas, Aditya, John, Kosi, Temilade

The rules for Tag Rugby are significantly different from full contact Rugby. The adjustment in mind set for a player needs to be made before he steps over the white line on to the Tag Rugby pitch. It was very clear in our performances in the first two matches, that some of the Elmhurst boys had trouble making that adjustment.

In the first game Elmhurst School were 6 tries to 4 tries up at half-time against Sacred Heart, Wadhurst  A’ and looking like they had a chance to win their opening game. The second half however was littered with mistakes that are directly related to the boys not having changes their mind set. You have to have two hands on the ball at all times in Tag Rugby. Also, you cannot hand off or dive for the try line and these were three areas that we were unable to eradicate from our performances in the second half of the first game and in the second game against Westward too. We lost both games 9-7 and 7-5.

The last game we played in the tournament was to determine fifth and sixth place which we played against Sacred Heart Wadhurst B’ which we won, 7-2. I was very pleased with the progress made by the boys. They won their final game playing fast flowing Tag Rugby, scoring quality tries and working well as a team. Notable performances came from Temu, Joseph and Oscar but all of the boys made significant contributions to the overall performance of the team.

In reflection, the boys ran forwards with the ball, passed the ball backwards and had a great deal of fun! We look forward to next year when the Year 5 boys that were involved will take this valuable experience into the tournament.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Atkinson, an Old Whitgiftians’ Rugby Coach herself, for coming with me and helping with the coaching and supervision of the boys.

- AJ Padfield