Northwich
   Rugby Union Football Club
   -the community rugby club for Mid Cheshire

Formed in 1965

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Under 11’s Page
Welcome to the Under 11’s team page. This is the part of the Northwich RUFC club site dedicated to news, views and information about the Under 11’s team.
We are now about three quarters of the way through the season, so I thought it was definitely about time I updated this text. I have been nagged by Kevin the Web master, but in my defense I have been busy with lots of things. So far we have had an excellent season. The squad of 18 has risen to the challenges that this game throws up and I trust have had a very enjoyable time. Our skill levels continue to improve and it’s heartening to see some of this years newcomers adapting to the game so quickly. At this age there is a lot to take on board if you haven’t played before, but the more experienced players have helped to bring the newer folk on.

We had an excellent run in the Cheshire Cup, we qualified for the quarter finals as pool winners and faced a very tough game against Stockport, whom we’d lost to when we visited them earlier in the year. We had to go to extra time and the dreaded Golden try – but we won through and progressed. We met Macclesfield in the semi, having already drawn with them in the pool game. However, the Northwich children were determined to go one better than last year when they went out in the semi finals and we overcame a good Macclesfield team to set up a final with Lymm. Another hard fought game saw the full time whistle blow at 7 points all. With the children by now very tired, we entered extra time. This was a further 5 mins each way and Lymm got the rub of the green when a ball came out the back of a ruck on the Northwich side, struck the referee and was snapped up by the Lymm scrum half. Northwich’s defense were wrong footed and Lymm slipped in for the decisive score.
So from third last year to second this year – maybe it will be our year next year? However, we soon had something to lift our spirits as the U10’s and U11’s were invited to Twickenham to do the Curtain Raiser and to form the Guard of Honor for the Calcutta Cup game (England vs Scotland). It was a great privilege to run out on the “hallowed” turf and Northwich U10’s and U11’s can now rightly claim that they have played at Twickenham (and I have now refereed there!).

So we now enter the last few games of the year, knowing that whatever happens we have had a memorable season. All too soon it will be over and we will be looking at U12 rugby. If you have read this far and like what you hear about Northwich U11’s, then why not come and give it a ‘try’ (pun intended). If you’ve never played before, remember, lads that go up to High School in September will have to start playing rugby then. So why not get ahead of the ‘pack’ and come and join us on Sunday mornings at 10.30am for training.

The new season will start with Enrollment Day on Sunday September 7th, see you there.

U11's Coach Ken Houghton
Tel:01606 558677
E-mail: khoughton@northwichrufc.co.uk
 

Cheshire Cup Runners Up

Line out with Wirral in October

Scrum at Sandbach in February

Conversion at Wirral

End of Season report
The team had a lot to live up to from last year, when we won the Cheshire Plate at U10’s but this team just keeps on improving. However, they are still some way from being the finished article as our results this year show. We have entered 3 competitions this season and came away with 3 Runners Up Medals (doh!)
Though it was disappointing for all involved not to have topped the table in any of these tournaments, the fact that we made it to three consecutive finals and were only narrowly beaten in any of them is testament to the level these children are capable of playing to.
The squad has stabilised this season at 18 (though it peaked at 20) with a good mixture of new faces and old hands. Indeed 6 players have now been playing for 5 seasons. We were pleased to welcome a number of new faces this year including this teams first girl player. All our new starters have developed well and it now becomes a real headache trying to sort out who gets to play where and when. As you progress through the age groups, it gets to be less about individual brilliance and more about team work and at times we have found ourselves trying to rely still on the former whilst forgetting the latter. However, I am sure that when they all go away and reflect on the season they will realise that they have done extremely well and have much to be proud of.
My thanks to Kevin, for all his support in the coaching arena this year. Also to Paul Turrell and Richard Woodhead for keeping the stats and writing the very amusing (and accurate) match reports - some of you will have seen them on the web site.
It makes interesting reading to see that we have scored over 100 tries, that our top try scorer was Ben Jones, but only just as equal second top scorers were Chris Bridle and James Turrell our two props. The seasons stats look like this 

   Played Won Draw Lost For Against Tries Conversions

Club 16   11   1    4 498   130   72    69
Cheshire Cup Runners Up
     6    4    1    1  85   42    13     10 Wilmslow Runners Up
     5    3    1    1  68    28   10     9 Rochdale Runners Up
     5    4    0    1  84   21    12    12

Total 32   22   3    7 735  221   107   100