After a Halloween party and a cancelled fixture against New Brighton last Sunday due to the rain, the U8's were back in action against Caldy...

An earlier start that usual, coupled with it being a cold morning, didn't deter children or parents and everybody turned up at 9.30 and quickly got warmed up. Some parents got warm with a signature hot chocolate provided by Annie Smith (the coaches missed out!) whilst the children got warmed up by doing some stretches and then demonstrating their newly acquired wave passing routine.
After three equal teams were selected (with a few Caldy cameos to make even teams) we played three games across three pitches. Each of our games started with the obligatory paper, scissors, stone (or is it rock, paper, scissors?!). This seems to be the game of choice across the Wirral U8 rugby circuit when it comes to deciding who takes the first play - I remember a time when it was a coin toss, but that is no fun according to our 7&8 year olds!

The first games of the day took place with the usual gusto and enthusiasm of first-game freshness. Lots of pacey running and frantic passing but also some great tries scored by both teams!
After the first game both U8's from Caldy and Anselmians came together with parents and coaches to pay their respects to Dan Arnold, a much loved coach who was a significant part of the Anselmian's rugby family. It was lovely to see everybody honour Dan and thank you to Caldy for also wanting to pay their respects.

Caldy provided some great competition this week and the rugby was overall very even, with lots of draws and an equal share of wins and losses. We are still at the stage where the children are learning to pass backwards, stay onside, run FORWARDS (!) and make the simple passes. Both teams were getting better and better as the games went on and there are clear improvements as each week goes by. Some of the running, sidestepping and breaking through gaps was great this week! It's so great to see the boys really having fun playing their rugby this week, across some of the games the communication in the games was brilliant and everybody really worked together as a team to score tries and take some great tags. This is what it's all about - turning up & having fun!

When we asked some of the boys at the end what their highlight of the day was and we got two responses... playing against some of their school friends at Caldy and the sausage and chips from the clubhouse!! We definitely have a team who like their rugby and post match food in equal proportions! Thank you to Caldy for hosting us and we look forward to seeing them at our place in a few months.

As the coaches hobbled off back to the car at the end of the day (we both played yesterday!) we agreed that this was the best we had seen from our U8s. Well done and see you next week!