Pirates vs Gowerton CANCELLED

Unfortunately we've had to cancel the game on Sunday as we couldn't raise a team, or enough coaches, due to a variety of reasons.  Well done to those that were available, you've earned a lie-in instead.  No training on Tuesday, but we'll aim to play next Sunday's game against Uplands.

Mumbles Pirates v Gowerton 28 October

Currently it's looking very tight as to whether we will have a team this week.  I know we had a show of hands on Tuesday, but could we have a teamer response or a text if you can play.  Currently we have:

Definite no (as away, or injured)

Rhyddian
Harley
Tom T
Tommy

Matthew G

Matt S

Cian

Liam

All others are possibles which includes:

Luke
Will M
Josh
Connor - Yes
Will L
Sean A
Jake S - Yes
Jon
Sean M
Jake C
Tom B
Owen - Yes
Rory
Joe
Max

Casualties, though possibles
Morgan (recovering ill)
Tal (injured arm)

Training Tuesday 23 October

At the changing rooms Underhill, ready to go for 6-7pm.

Team Policy

Dear Pirates and parents

In the wake of a few recent conversations it would be helpful to touch base on match day selection policy. As background we have always given all players an equal minimum game time. This aspires to keep all the children enthusiastic about rugby and sport and give the whole squad opportunity to fulfil their potential. The WRU has increasingly recognised that selection can result in losing young children to the sport and correlates poorly with future performance, hence the disbanding of District teams below U15 last year.

Equally, given that our children are pre-growth spurt, they are encouraged to experiment with different positions and discouraged from pigeon-holing too early.

Whilst sometimes this puts the team at a disadvantage, against opponents who just play their best team, it has kept the whole squad together. This year we started the year with the same 24 players that started last year, which has not been the case for some of our contemporaries and turned away 3 more whilst they remain unfilled.

Not unreasonably many of the team did other things over the summer rather than attend our pre-season training leading a slow start into the season with many new scrum and lineout skills to learn. We have made some progress in the last few weeks which culminated in a very good team victory against Penclawdd, where all the players rightly felt that they were part of the victory. Clearly we didn't have the best week-end on Sunday, particularly against a team we beat two weeks ago. There have been lots of opinions aired as to why we had this performance and what direction the team should take from here. Without going into too much detail there were lots of small mistakes, in skills, decisions, application and tactics on the week-end, that weren't present in previous weeks, which collectively hampered our performance as a team.

Clearly with some notable exceptions we still need to ignite that 'switch-on from the kick-off focus and will to win' attitude that has eluded us.

Moving forward we need to decide if we continue to focus on teamwork, fun and developing potential, inline with WRU guidance, or focus purely on winning more matches. With the former we will have a strong happy squad for the coming years. With the latter we risk losing some of the fun and some of the players along the way.

At the end of the day the team belongs to us all collectively and input and suggestion is welcome from all, especially the boys. We would be grateful if each family could reflect on this as we go forward in the Season so we can prioritise and achieve consensus on our goals. We will be arranging a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss this.  Finally any parent who would like to contribute in any capacity is most welcome in the volunteer coaching team, the necessary WRU training courses are funded by the club. The coaching team.

Mumbles Pirates vs Resolven, Sunday 21 October

This Sunday sees a hastily arranged trip over the M4 and into the Neath valley for a match against Resolven.  The kick-off is 11:30 so we plan to meet at 10:45 so that we can pick a team and get organised.

Resolven RFC can be found at the Vaughan Field off Perth-Y-Dion (the red dot below).

Training Tuesday 16 October 2012

Training at the changing rooms Underhill, 6-7pm this evening.

Festival results

Not the best of results on Sunday losing 20-0 to Penclawdd and 15-7 to Pontarrdulais.  Both our opponents were generally a bit more committed and it showed in the final results. Another good effort from Matt Straw (who I think was Player of the Week) and Will, with a good defensive display at flanker by Liam.

Ospreys Festival at South Gower on Sunday 14th

Here are the details for the festival on Sunday, straight from the email from South Gower:

The plans for the day (as concisely as possible).

Getting to 

South Gower RFC

Pwll Du Lane

Bishopston

Swansea

SA3 3HA

Parking

• The other South Gower mini and junior Teams have all arranged to be away elsewhere, however you have all been to South Gower and seen that Car Parking can be a problem so if the full sign is on the corner by the Post Office please park considerately for the locals along the local roads. 
• If you do get into the car park please park closely together - there should be some car park marshals on hand to direct. 

Food/Drink/Amenities

• Bacon sarnies/coffee and tea will be available from 10ish
• Bar will be open all day serving drinks/crisps etc..
• BBQ will be going with Hot Dogs and Burgers available
• There should be 6 useable changing rooms so if it is wet we might have to share

The Rugby

Timings:

• Register with Andrew Wiliams (Ospreys) before 10:30
• 10:30 - Run through for main coaches by Andrew
• 1st KO at 11

The teams are:

• South Gower
• Bridgend
• Byncoch
• Dunvant
• Penclawdd
• Gowerton
• Mumbles
• Swansea Uplands

The format

• The 8 will be split by Andrew into two pools so that each team will play 3 games during the day

• Games will be 20 minutes playing one way, no half time.

• There are two full size pitches so the two pools will run concurrently with games back to back with 5 -10 minutes in between.

• Rules will be communicated by Andrew but will largely be the current pathway.

• Andrew will ref on one pitch but good if each team can nominate a ref in case required.

Training tonight 9 October

Training is tonight from 6-7 at the changing rooms at Underhill.  We are down to play in a festival at South Gower on Sunday which will be longer than a single match, but we are still awaiting details on the teams and the exact format.

Vardre v Pirates, 7 October 2012

The match this week-end is away at Vardre.  Meet at 10.30 am to pick the team, the match will kick-off at 11:00am.  The clubhouse is in the heart of Clydach here.

Penclawdd vs Pirates 14-17

A late result coming through from last week-end....

The Pirates won their first victory of the season in a classic account away at Penclawdd.  Both teams lined up on a large pitch with a neutral referee who helped set the tone for a cracking encounter.  The whole team stepped up to the mark to deliver a first victory over Penclawdd for many a year.  Key to the victory was a lot more organised defence and a combative pack. The Pirates pushed out to a 7-17 lead with a few minutes to go thanks to a brace of tries from Matt Gully and Will finishing off a great team try; Owen popping over the conversion into the wind.  The hosts struck back with a consolation try in the last minute, but it was too little, too late.  The match even featured a yellow card for each side!

Player of the Week for his two tries.  It was nice to see the team celebrating like they'd won the grand slam after each try.  Let's see if we can have a few more weeks like this.