Monday 18 April 2011

No training Tuesday 19 April 2011

As we've no game this week-end and we're into the holiday season, there's no training for a few weeks. Next training will be on Tuesday 3 May 2011 at Underhill getting ready to play:

Saturday 7 May, Mumbles Pirates vs Gwernyfed (10.30 ko)
Sunday 8 May, Gower Cup at Penclawdd (ko tbc)

Saturday 16 April 2011

Coach to Luctonians

There are some spaces left of the 11s coach if anyone is interested.  Speak to Mike.

Thursday 14 April 2011

Luctonians 17 April

The final squad for Luctonians is:


Forwards
Tom T, Matt G, Tal, Matt S, Connor, Cian. Josh B

Backs
Rhydian, Morgan, Sean A, Will, Jon, Harley, Jake S, Liam, Joe

First matches kick off at 11:00 and we aim to be there for 10:00 as it's a large tournament and it may take a while to get together, organised and focussed on the first match. Ceri, Guy and I are aiming to get there for 9:30 (gasp) as registration closes at 9:50.  Luctonians will be charging a £4 entry fee for each spectator over 14, so be ready!

Sunday 10 April 2011

Mumbles Pirates at the Dunvant Festival

Clash of the Titans

A glorious sunny Sunday in Dunvant and an even bigger feast of rugby. After a slow start, with losses in the first two games to London Irish (25-10 with tries by Will and Joe) and Farnham 2 (10-5 with a try by Sean A), the Pirates charged into action for the third.

Their opponents were Farnham 1 and revenge for the slights of Saturday were the order of the day. Playing to 'local rules' the Pirates aggressive defence and committed counter rucking drove the tourists off the ball on many occasions. Once the Pirates scored the first try Farnham never looked like recovering. The Pirates finished winning 10-0 with tries from Will and Liam.







For the final group game the Pirates lined up against a very good Pencoed team yet to concede a try in their games. The Pirates competed at the breakdown, but were out powered and gave away a number of tries. The match featured a mix of committed tackling and rucking, but some disorganised defensive alignment and missed tackles. A few heads dropped leading to a final scoreline of 6-0.

The groups favoured the Pirates who finished second in group 2. They were then drawn to face Pencoed again in the semi-final. After a collective drawing of breath the Pirates marched out ready for battle.

Pencoed scored early, but were soon driven backwards by more awesome defensive effort from the Pirates. A full bloodied contest at the breakdown led to Pirates ball, through the back's hands to Will to finish for the first try scored against Pencoed. The Pirates pressed again and had a try disallowed. When the referee blew for the end of the game the scores were tied 5-5, so the teams changed ends and played extra time seeking the 'golden try'.

Pencoed started well and were denied a number of times by crunching team tackles with the Pirates putting their bodies on the line to hold out. After more than 15 minutes of defending the Pirates could repel boarders no more and were finally beaten by a try from Pencoed's stand out player. Plaudits for the Pirates came from Pencoed who knew they'd been in a very tough game and from Dunvant who thought it was the game of the day.

Pencoed went on to beat London Irish in the final and the only try they conceded on the day was to the Pirates.

All in a fantastic squad performance across all the games on Saturday and Sunday with a total of around three hours of quality rugby played.

Mumbles Pirates vs Farnham/South Gower

The Marathon Men

We had 10 Pirates for the day who all played 3 half hour games, so big hearts all round.  If I get any of the scorers wrong let me know (I was too busy cheering)

In the first game the Pirates were unlucky to lose 3-2 against Farnham 2. At times it looked like we would win, but unfortunately Farnham had enough in the tank to pinch this one (tries from Jon and Sean A). 



For the second game we lost 4-2 against a stronger Farnham 1 team (Jon scored the first one I think).  The second try was a strange uncontested effort scored by one of our borrowed players (it appeared more than a little disrespectful of the effort the Pirates were putting in).   

The final match, against what looked like a very strong South Gower finished 8-2, but the Pirates dug very deep to move down the pitch and score a second try when they were already 7-1 down.  Luke hit the line like a bull on a 5 yard penalty which he REALLY wanted to score.  The try in the first half was a fine team effort with Sean A finishing in the corner.   

The refereeing was as you'd expect at South Gower, tackling was high and ripping was the order of the day, but  the Pirates were all up for it.  Good commitment all round with Jon in particular playing through some nasty knocks.  Well done all round.




Saturday 9 April 2011

Dunvant Tournament, Sun 10 April

Grateful if you could arrive by 9:30 (9:45 latest!) as things usually get pretty hectic when there are hundreds of rugby boys milling around. It'll take a while to find each other and where we're meant to be! Don't forget to bring lots of water and snacks. See you tomorrow.

Thursday 7 April 2011

More information on the Dunvant festival

The word from Dunvant is that our first game kicks off at 10:02, and last one at 1:30 in the group stages.  We will have 4 games and we play approx once per hour.  The matches are 15 min games one way, ie each match is the equivalent of one half of rugby.


Their website says:

"On April 10th Dunvant welcome Farnham Rugby club, (Johnny Wilkinsons home club) who will be hosting a minis tournament under 7's to 12's involving 9 clubs including Blackburn, London Irish and Waterford from Ireland, there will be over 120 games of rugby throughout the day played by 50 teams within excess of 600 players. The first matches played over 6 mini pitches and one full size pitch kicks off at 9:30 and it is anticipated the final games will be around 3:30. Food will be available, starting with bacon rolls for breakfast, burgers later on , and a hog roast from 3 o clock, there will also be a band on from 4 til 5, so everyone come and show their support of junior rugby, where playing and enjoying is the name of the game."


From what I have been told we will be playing Farnham, Blackburn, London Irish and Waterford (though as with most plans this may not exactly be our opponents) so that's an international week-end for everyone.  As with Saturday parking is limited so get there early, but you may still need to park up and walk to the ground.

Parking on Saturday morning

Here's a note from South Gower about the parking arrangements for Saturday morning:


"We're having to keep one of the car parks closed and the other restricted for the day due to the number of people etc... and are asking that people use the primary school car park for the day.  We have agreed with the school and the gates will be left open for the day.  The reason behind this is that we have received complaints from residents about the parking on match days and also had a visit from the local police.  We have been advised that parking enforcement officers will be around on the day so the school is the best place to park.  We are currently looking at possible means of transporting people from the car park to Pyle Corner.

As for the day, I've been advised that the fixture schedule has been sent out, along with the games their will be hot-dogs as usual for the players and more food and drink on sale, along with other activities, during the day."



So get there early.  I'm thinking of parking at the secondary school and walking down.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Sunday at Dunvant, 10 April 2011

The latest for Sunday are the following volunteers:

Forwards
Cian, Tal, Matt G, Tom B and Freddie

Backs
Josh H, Jake C, Liam, Joe, Owen, Tommy, Jake S, Rory and Morgan

PLUS all the players from Saturday who want to play. We believe there are a number of games and we will post the times and details when we confirm them with Dunvant.  Meanwhile this is what Dunvant had to say on their website about Sunday:

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/dunvant/j/team-news-20099.html&news_id=281620

Coaches will be Alex, John, Ceri, and Guy plus the others that can get there.

Saturday at South Gower, 9 April 2011

Ok the volunteers for Saturday at South Gower:

Forwards
Connor, Tom T, Matt S, Josh B, Tomasz, Sean M, and Luke

Backs
Will, Rhydian, Jon D, Sean A and Harley.

Coaches for the day are Steve and Paul. Meet at South Gower at 10 am and the parking is reportedly going to be tight, due to the touring team, so get there promptly.

Training 5.30 Junior Pitch (wet!) Tues 5th April

Sunday 3 April 2011

Friday 1 April 2011

This w'end and Next

Some interesting communication has left us with a number of options in the next couple of weeks.
This Sunday there is now a match against Bryncoch 10.30 ko (Meet 10.00 BISH). They are a strong team and we will try and craft 2 balanced teams to take them on so everyone plays.

Next week there is a tournament against a touring team at South Gower 10-12 on SATURDAY 9th they are keen for us to enter. Also a tournament on SUNDAY at Dunvant 10th.

The following w'end there is Luctonians and also South Gower have another tour team down Sunday 17th.We could split the squads again which means everyone gets more rugby and less travel.
Can I ask everyone to reply to Ceri's text with availability/preference (I know some players have football on saturdays etc)
thanks