Carlisle Under 9’s had their first competitive games of rugby this season at the Tyne Festival at Percy Park on Sunday the 6th of October.

The boys were in 2 different Groups with the Carlisle Reds playing in the “Mixed Ability” group and the Carlisle Blues playing in the “Ability” group.

Our Reds team played with a mixture of finesse, power and great running skills. They played 5 games in total and scored a remarkable 22 tries across their matches. This was a great opportunity for the boys build their confidence, score loads of tries and have loads of fun! The highlights were:

Adam Woolway – one for the future, great pace and commitment. Really grew in confidence as the games progressed.
Will Garson – this was the best we have seen Will playing, fully committed to his tackles and powerful direct running.
Joseph Kirkhope – great ball handling skills and really worked hard, in fact he actually stopped talking at one point he was so tired.
Myles Kasiera – powerful direct running, once he gets going he is virtually impossible to stop!
Adam Dixon – the glue that holds the team together, always there at the breakdown, a true team player.
James Dickson – he’s just little, but no-one could stop him (what does Simon feed him?). Brilliant.
Lenny Rhodes – superb balanced running, steps off both feet and scored loads of tries (just like his Dad apparently……?)
Aiden Street – grew in confidence as the day went on and showed us his brilliant running skills in the last game with a superb individual try.
Matthew Hodgson – he’s got the speed, he’s got the enthusiasm – just give him the ball and watch him go. 2 brilliant tries.

Our Blue team played with a mixture of power and er……more power. In fact one of the coaches from the opposition thanked us for bringing our Under 12’s team to the festival! Being the type of players they were the Blue team were only going to play one way with some superb offloads in the tackle and great “pop” passes off the floor. This culminated in one move with 3 passes out of the tackle and 2 pop passes resulting in a superb team try which simply flattened the opposition. The individual highlights were:

Josh Blain – played every minute of every game – great running and support and 8 tries. Fantastic!
Jonny Davies – the finesse runner in the team but also great tackling and commitment. He gets knocked down but always gets back up. A real brave lad.
Luke O’Neil – if Luke tackles you….you stay tackled. Running, passing, tackling, scoring – a perfect all round performance!
Stan Baglee – Stan’s attitude and approach to the game is superb. He never gives up, never stops trying. He’s also about 7 foot tall already.
Jak Quinn – powerful direct running and clever game play made Jak a real star performer and scorer for the Blues.
Nathan Bell – a real power force in the team, fully committed and never far from the ball at the breakdown. Great play!
Josh Hope – He tells me he scored 8 tries and made about 300 tackles. He did play superbly well and we only had the “red mist” once.

Both teams did incredibly well. This was the boys first experience of competitive tackling rugby. Every single one of them came through it brilliantly and the smiles on their faces at the end once they had received their medals was great.

All of the games were recorded as 8-8 draws as this was planned as a learning and fun day for the boys, where they could build experience and confidence. It certainly had the desired effect and we have passed on the thanks of everyone at Carlisle RFC U9’s to the organisers at Percy Park RFC.

Carlisle Rugby Club

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