Dunvant Match Reports

At about 10:45 this morning it looked like kid soup at the Broadacre. But the u7s soon got going and with the help of Dan commandeering some cones it all fell into place for the 8s as well. Thanks very much to Dunvant for hosting. And it was great to meet up with Gowerton again.

First up is Rob's report on the 7s road trip....

We had some great moments today on the field and we got an away win against Dunvant. My score tally said about 5-3. Great scores by: Matthew, Jake, Tomas, Dylan, Elias, Max, Tal, and there’s probably some I left out, Dunvant made it hard for us as our defence at times was stretched but the quick thinking of great taggers: Cai, Tomasz, Josh, Matthew, Elias, Max, Sean and Ethan soon got turnover after turnover! Some great grafting led to turnovers, quick thinking in loose ball situations, and supporting other team members. Quote of the Day comes from Cai to Ref “can we have a scrum?”

Before the Gowerton match, Dylan was awarded his Mumbles jersey and everyone looked smart. Gowerton proved a good side today they just nicked it from us at the end with 4-3, but our excuse was we were starting to tire then anyway as the waft of hotdogs came from their clubhouse!

Well done to all again for the determination in getting your children to the Dunvant RFC ground especially the Mothers who stood there cheering on their sons when they clearly could have taken advantage of a laze in bed!

The under 8s were split down the middle again this week, using random numbers generated on my parallel computing cluster.
We had the novelty of fielding sides with no subs which led to far more participation, continuity and interplay between the boys. Even though Keiran was injured during an over-enthusiastic karate celebration, Mike Morgan took half the boys, and even the whistle. Here's the unexpurgated report.

"Both games were very good contests played in a excellent spirit in which two evenly matched teams thoroughly entertained both sets of supporters. For Mumbles all players showed excellent teamwork, ability to pass and support and committment to legitimate defense. Particularly satisfying for Mumbles was their ball retention and ability to go through the "Set of Six Tags", offloading to the nearest man in support (not looking for their best mate) which resulted on a number of occasions on making good territorial gains before surrendering field position - this shows that teamwork and skill levels are improving and that with no restrictions on the number of phases next year this facet of play is very promising and is to be encouraged. Thanks to Greg for marshalling the troops from the rear and for the timekeeping. Also thanks to Dai (Gowerton) and Kevin (Dunvant) for encouraging their sides to play in the true spirit of the game. Final Scores - Mumbles 6 Gowerton 6. Mumbles 4 Dunvant 4.

PS - Issue regarding Dans treasured lost Whistle - Last seen heading towards Gowerton with Lyndon in hot pursuit - If the Gentleman concerned could give us a clue to its whereabouts by breaking wind very aggresively we will follow the high toned pitch and retrieve it through a local aneasthetic."

That leaves the other half of the 8s. In between playing contact rugby with blonde mascots Will Langford and Nye Gravenor I caught most of these entertaining games. Dunvant found the boys a real handful as everyone was really involved with the game, supporting and looking for the pass. Hard running from Ben C, Cam, Lloyd and Rhys, was complimented by mazy runs from Tom G, Ben M, Cian and Jack and 10 tries followed. Against Gowerton, after running in some early tries and opening up a good lead, Mumbles put on a great defensive display. Having played them twice already this season we know they are a good fast side and pass the ball really well. This was no different, and it looked like it would be another very close one. The boys dug in though and were only breached once, and that with the final play of the game.

6 Games of rugby. Happy Mother's Day.