Ledbury Rugby Club juniors continued.

Newbies The Newbies group is suitable for those school aged girls and boys (from aged 5 years) that are new to rugby. The group this year has been one of the largest the club has seen with around 40 players taking part on Sunday mornings at LRFC. The players enjoy learning the basic skills of rugby along with the importance of being a member of a team. Rain or shine the Newbies are having fun at LRFC!

Under 7 End of season Festivals brought the best out of the U7's players. Winning the Evesham tournament, reached finals of the Worcester tournament, winners of both pools at Luctonians festival and with 3 mixed ability teams at Droitwich, 2 teams reached the semi-finals and 1 team in finals - best of all, every player scored tries that day! Training begins again on August 30th (10.15am til 11.30am).

Under 8 The 2014/15 Ledbury U8s have enjoyed another great season of Tag Rugby. The squad of 28 players have seen action both home and away and at a number of festivals including at Old Luctonians, Worcester, Droitwich and Evesham. In March a small squad played a brief match on the Sixways stadium pitch during half time of the exciting Worcester Warriors winning fixture against London Scottish on their way towards their promotion play-offs.

In the new season the squad move on to tackling rugby for the first time and will be raring to go after the summer break. We are always open to new players and any boys or girls wanting to join in as they go into Year 4 can find contact information on the LRFC website.

So it is only two year groups that have not responded so far! If I get anything in over the weekend I will forward it on to you.

At the last Coaches and Managers meeting I said that I wanted each year group to nominate at least one, preferably two, match reporters so that we can feed through regular news to yourselves. We’ll see what happens next season!!

Under 9 Ledbury RFC Under 9's season 2014 - 15.

The move into Under 9's rugby saw the introduction of 'contact' to this set of players. Instilling confidence in the tackle was the coaching focus for 4 weeks, prior to the first friendly fixture versus local club Bromyard. Match results were secondary to ensuring both teams were safe, confident and having fun in the new contact environment.

As the season progressed different players developed at different rates, and fixtures were arranged to ensure players were pitched against similar ability opposition. Coaching sessions were planned and delivered, by the team on 10 volunteer coaches, to stretch the more confident player, but also to nurture those players who were struggling with contact.

Very few sessions were lost to bad weather and on a sunny March 22nd 2015 two teams entered the Evesham RFC Festival. One team won the Cup - playing 6 games, scoring 32 tries and conceding only one. The other narrowly losing out in the Plate Final.

Four weeks later the two teams went their separate ways, one to the Worcester RFC Festival, the other to Luctonians RFC Festival. The team at Luctonians put up a valiant effort coming up against very strong Welsh sides, and were eventually knocked out in the Plate Semis. The team at Worcester played and won 6 games, scoring an impressive 33 unanswered tries to dominate and win the Festival.

Two further 'Development' Festivals were organised at Worcester and Ledbury to give those players not attending the previously mentioned Festivals opportunity in environments more suitable to their ability. Inclusivity is vital at this stage of player development to ensure retention of as many players as possible. With this approach, from our starting squad of 34 we have only lost 2 players throughout the season, and have gained an additional 4 new players!

This season has been extremely successful in all aspects of rugby including squad growth, player retention, development and performance on and off the pitch. To cap it all, the Under 9's were awarded the Ledbury RFC 'Age Group of the Season' award at the End of Season Presentation Evening held on Friday 8 May 2015.

Any players interested in joining the squad in September 2015 (Year 5 in September) should contact the Clubhouse or visit our website (http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/ledburyrugbyclub) for more details.