News January 2012

28 January 2012

Old Ruts Coach wins National Award!

That was the headline in the last newsletter and here is a picture of Stacia on the evening of the Award ceremony – well done Stacia, the whole Club is proud of you……..

Seniors

Onwards and Upwards!

Following the “must win” victory over Old Haileyburians, the 1st XV have followed it up with 2 more excellent victories, beating Bec Old Boys in the League and then overcoming First Division opponents Old Walcountians in the first round of the Surrey Cup last Saturday.

Both results auger well for the rest of the season and fingers crossed we can build on these wins and start climbing the table to safety.

Meanwhile the 2nd XV continue their winning ways and remain top of the Conference 2 having won 9 out of 10 games so far this season.

Juniors

Joy at last for U15’s……..

An injury depleted Old Ruts U15s made the long trek to Camberley, with both teams looking to secure their first win of the season. With only 15 players it was going to be a tough ask against the 28 man Camberley squad but an inspired pre-match talk from Matt and Mark reminded the boys it was 15 against 15 on the pitch - Ruts didn't disappoint and after a period of sustained pressure from the forwards, Harry Hovell went over in the corner with Jordi adding the extra points, slotting over a difficult conversion from wide-out by the touchline.

Camberley then stoked up the pressure, but the Ruts defence held firm until Daniel broke free beating several of the Camberley backs to touch down under the posts. Another Jordi conversion made it 14-0 with only 10 minutes of the match gone.After good handling by the backs, Jordi followed up his two conversions with a powerful run to score and then make it 3 kicks from 3 attempts.

In the 2nd half. Max Kuijpers and Taylor dominated the lineout and there were scores for Harry and Taylor. With Camberley having the luxury of making a number of substitutions, they were able to exploit tired Ruts' legs with a try in the last play of the match.

There were great performances all round the pitch resulting in a 31 – 5 victory and the team will look to build on this win in their final league matches against KCS and Caterham.

Frustration continues for U14’s and U16’s, U13’s continue to impress….

It’s 5 League defeats on the trot for the U14’s as despite scoring 3 excellent tries against Guildford, the oppo scored 6 to run out deserved winners in a bottom of the table clash.

With Ruts probably needing to win 3 out of their last 4 matches before this to stay up, the equation has become very simple now!! There was no lack of effort as ever from this team but some missed first up tackles cost them dear in the end.

The U16’s started really well against Farnham in Division 2 and went to the break 12 – 0 in front but the extremely harsh sin binning of 2 players for “verbals” changed the whole picture and 2 late tries against the 13 players left on the field led to a narrow defeat.

Lesson to be learnt from this match for all Ruts players are that it is best to focus on getting on with the rugby and leave the chat till afterwards and for young aspiring referees, remember that really good refs are the ones that are not noticed.

The U13 bandwagon rolled on with the B team showing a lot of classy running in defeating a spirited Chipstead side last Sunday. Both the A’s and B’s now top their Divisions (3&6) with maximum points and with more new players joining all the time are now looking to put a C team out before the end of the season.

Ruts Club School partnerships prosper

Many of you will have spotted that the work we are doing at Rutlish School every Monday with Years 7, 8 and 9 is really paying off as the school tops the Leagues in all 3 year groups with all unbeaten so far this season. The added benefit is that more than ever are now coming down to play at Ruts on a Sunday morning as well, something which we are sure will become even more pronounced in future seasons.

Tim Berrington laid the foundations for this and continues to lead a great team of Ruts coaches, Andy Keavy, Nick Pearce, Peter Cox and even the Chairman himself with the great support of Surrey CRC Toby Seward and the Rutlish sports teacher Liam Shanahan who has really boosted the whole rugby side of the school.

With Stacia going great guns at Graveney as usual there was intense anticipation for the recent meeting of the 2 schools at Year 8 with the majority of the 2 teams friends from Ruts!

A great match followed, Rutlish nicking it in the last minute, but a match that showed the incredible talent that is around and one that was played in exactly the right spirit.

Any coach or wannabee coach with time on their hands from 3 on a Monday is very welcome to join the team at Rutlish to continue the good work!

Busy Christmas for Minis

Seems like an awfully long time ago now but it was a very busy Christmas for the Minis firstly with a very successful Christmas Party, organized superbly by Ali, Michelle, Sue, Carole, Bernie, Donna and everyone else not named, you know who you are!!

We then followed up with some great performances from the U11’s and the U9’s in the pre match curtain raiser against Old Wimbledonians and then we took over 350 down to Twickenham for the Big Game and had 3 of our teams out on the hallowed turf before the match!!

Because we took such a large number along we will get access to a Quins training Session this season, details to follow.

Since then, we played in the opening round of the Curtain Raiser Cup, a great opportunity for us all to test ourselves against the best teams not just in Surrey but in the South East. Every team fought hard on the day as always in a Ruts shirt but the kudos go to the U10’s and the U12’s who both qualified for the Semi Finals, well done guys great effort.

Loads of Festival activity on the horizon now and a record number touring to Brean Sands at the end of the season….

Coaches Corner

One of the key aims for Gary Douch, our Club Coaching Co-Ordinator, is to improve the standard of coaching across the whole of Youth Rugby at Ruts and with that in mind he has organized the following CPD (Continued Personal Development) courses which will be held at Ruts, plus another Rugby Ready for those of you who would like to start coaching or would like to support your coaches more effectively:

  • Attack from Set Play Course 31/10/12

  • Defence in Phase Play Course 12/11/12

  • Scrum Factory 15/10/12

  • Maul & Ruck 26/11/12

  • Rugby Ready 01/10/12

Let Gary know which courses you want to go on (garydouch@sky.com) and he will send you the form to book up with. Ruts will pick up the tab for all coaching courses, just pay upfront and then let Donna Trimmings know and she will refund. (donnatrimmings@blueyonder.co.uk) .

These courses, like all RFU courses, will be advertised to other clubs but we all have a great chance of getting in first so choose which ones you would like to go on and get the forms off ASAP.

Social..

For those of you of a more sophisticated nature, come along to the Presidents Wine & Cheese evening at Poplar Road on February 24th. At just a tenner a head, it’s a great chance to enjoy a wide range of great wines, learn a little more about them and eat your own bodyweight in fantastic cheese….it was a very enjoyable night last year with a lot of unsteady feet come closing time. Just email rstallard@btinternet.com to reserve a ticket for the evening which starts with a glass of Prosseco from 7 30.

 

Dates for the Diary…….

 

Saturday January 28th, 1st XV Away v Worth OB

 

Surrey League 2, 2 15pm

Saturday January 28th, , 2nd XV Home v Weybridge Vandals

Surrey Conference 2, Poplar Road, 2.15 pm

Sunday January 29th, U14A’s Away v Wimbledon

Surrey League 2, 11.00am