With the smell of sea salt hanging in the damp morning air and a landscape reminiscent to the Somme where else was today’s fixture, yes, Harwich and Dovercourt RFC. A picture of undulating green grass amongst psychedelic mushrooms growing on the match pitch and the fresh presence of a dog with a not so welcome gift for the mini mighty U12’S.
Today’s epic journey was to be against a mixture of Harwich and Dovercourt RFC with a sprinkling of Mistley RFC. Being school half term a full squad from the hosting club would have been a minor miracle however with 11 enthusiastic players tuning out against the mini mighty U12’S the game was on.

Today’s friendly fixture was always going to be more of a training opportunity than a serious game situation however following on with our current mind-set and winning streak the mini mighty U12’S capitalised on a lesser polished squad.
From the off it was apparent that the referee was perhaps in his early stages of refereeing the mighty game of rugby and being very lenient in his approach, as high tackle followed knocked on, which followed off side without even a single blow of the referee’s whistle. Some touchline coaching from Robin ‘Nik Berry’ Patchett was called for.

As expected todays line up of slightly cold boys soaked up the pressure of Harwich and Dovercourt’s ‘childmountain’ who’s signature move was to bear hug our players and simply throw them to one side. The match again was won by a team mind-set with too many individual moments to report on, however some plays worth comment are the twinkle-toe side stepping mastered by Barnaby followed up by strong runs leading to many tries scored by the whole squad which resulted in a very convincing win against the hosting club.
One other play worth its merit to be singled out amongst the other epic plays was Robert “Conan the hand off Barbarian” Ransome. To see frustration and a smidgen of temper being channelled into determination and then executed in a controlled and legal hand off not only had the side line cheering but his fellow players offering high fives and slaps on the back.

With progression in mind and ensuring the core values of rugby are never far from the squad’s thoughts head coach Robin Patchett brought into play a new feature of a single appointed captain for each fixture, this will be implemented in every match from now on.
The expectation of the match captain is to act as a single voice to the referee and match officials. To take guidance from match officials and pass on to players when required and equally from players to match officials.

Once again the Mini Mighty U12’s stepped up to the challenge and showed both parents/guardians and Coaches that on occasions they are listening at training sessions and can produce when required.

To finish off many congratulations to William Burton for his belated award for most improved player 2108/2019.