it seems so long since we have managed to have a training session that we called an early 10 o'clock start to attempt a quick get together before the game, many thanks for all the parents for their support. The session was very useful as we have a lot to work on, generally the team are playing very well but we have some bad habits which we need to get on top of to improve.

I am concious that we haven't really moved on from the under 7s last year we are still very stop, start, we need to move the ball before tagged and attempt to keep the ball alive. in past weeks i have been critical about the lack of urgency after the opposition have scored - tag rugby is very much to and fro and we need to ensure that we score every time we have the ball and make sure that we stop them if possible.

To effectively defend we need to ensure that we are organised and spread out, this is also the case in attack.

So to the games, as we had 9 players, two of which were debutants, and Bournemouth had many more we agreed to play 8 aside to give everyone a fair game.  From the start Ivel were straight into some fantastic defence and managed to win turnover ball with seven tags, the game progressed into a fantastic encounter and the final score ended 5-5.

The second game Ivel went one better and won 8-7.

The third game was another excellent battle which ended 4-5 to Bournemouth.

To sum up all three games we defended well, with some fantastic tagging. We also organised very well at times but still some players lacked concentration and eagerness getting ready for restarts. Freddy and Billy were very vocal in trying to organise the defence and  There is still a bit of over keenness from some boys who want the ball all of the time - this is very commendable but we must remember that this is a team game and every player needs to experience play, we can't make  a team with 4 players!

There will always be opportunities for these quicker players in the second, third and fourth phases of play.  Some great runs and tries from Rory, Murray and Liam and some good ground gained by runs from Billy, Owen and Freddy.

First timers Cameron and Harrison had excellent debuts in some fast and hectic games, both had tags and good runs and made very few mistakes - welcome to the team.

Bournemouth were an extremely well drilled team and used the ball better then us at times offloading before the tag and using more of the pitch than us. This is where we now need to work hard and trust our team mates with the ball.

Man of the match for leading the team - consistently being first to the restart and ready to go, with some
excellent runs and the best solo try of the day was Ethan.