Joint session with Alnwick RFC U13s, we began the morning with 30 mins of joint live scrummaging session. One of the former Alnwick first team forwards ran a focused session to bring both packs on. At the same time as both backlines ran some touch games, handling skills and decision making in attack.

Then onto a training match using all the new rules for this season. We had a strong turnout with 13 players out of our squad of 16. Alnwick had 12 so we decided to play 12 v 12 rather than normal 13 v 13. After half time Alnwick went one payer down so Tank kindly offered to play for Alnwick to help them and so we could continue to play 12 v 12.

The boys were very strong in the scrum with them winning the pushing contest in most scrums, didn’t always get the ball as Alnwick managed to still hook it and win the bell despite Blyth winning the push. The Blyth offloading game was the high light of the match with constant ball movement, offloading in the tackle and setting up tries. Our rucking was also very strong with secure ball and disrupting Alnwick working very well. Work ons as a team: 1. Tackling getting the whole team to put in effective tackles 2. When we attack to always have at least two, ideally 3 different passing options. 3. Continue to work on our scrum and winning the ball.

Great learning game for both sides, with the result being an after thought. All about the learning and exploring ways to play the game.