It’s great to have the program back up and running after all the disruption of recent seasons. Our partnership with London Irish has coincided with an increase in sessions being provided as part of the school curriculum. This has enabled high quality coaching to reach more pupils throughout the 11 secondary schools taking part. Regular fixtures have been provided through our festivals of rugby which are held at the Cage, in Burgess Park.
Our headline stats are as follows: Schools- 11 – Sessions delivered – 72 – Unique numbers attended – 378 – Festivals – 3 – Schools attended – 10 – Games played – 68 – Tries scored – 154
They say that the table doesn’t lie, and this is very much the case regarding St Michaels. Big consistent training numbers, 100% attendance at festivals and still undefeated means that they are at the summit for good reason. Nautical have yet to convert their good training numbers into success on the pitch but plans are afoot to remedy this, ARK have shown glimpses of what they are capable of but are somewhat hampered by the lack of time they get to spend at training and also at festivals. Bacons policy of regularly rotating PE classes means many get to sample the great coaching on offer but its difficult to gel as a team. Habadashers have been hampered by only attending one festival, numbers at training are great and they looked strong when they did field a team.
Kingsdale have had excellent numbers at training and have grown into the tournament as the term progressed. Somewhat disadvantaged in their first festival they more than held their own in the subsequent event and played some lovely structured rugby. STAC have blown hot and cold, only attended a solitary tournament but pulled off the shock of the season so far by drawing with runaway leaders St Michaels. We need to see more of them on the pitch. ARK Allsaints didn’t really suit touch rugby, they have some big direct runners and as the term progressed and more contact was introduced they have proven to be an interesting prospect, more numbers at training will help.
Newlands have consistent numbers at training and have attended all the festivals so far, a hard fought victory over Sacred Heart has been the highlight so far. Sacred Heart have struggled with numbers at training but have been very enthusiastic at festivals, they will benefit from introducing a bit more contact this term. Harris Dulwich have not been able to consistently host training sessions but this term should be different and we expect to see them rise up the table.
