News

The season has finally begun. It’s seems an age since we last saw the Mini Pitmen take to the field. Throughout the summer, the Mini Pitmen have worked extremely hard in their pre-season training sessions, to be prepared for another testing season against some of the finest U11’s teams in the country. At this point we'd like to welcome Haydn Butcher to the team. Haydn has fitted in extremely well and really worked hard during training and in his first matches for the Mini Pitmen. Welcome Haydn!

The first fixtures of the season were away to Bridgend Sports RFC and Kenfig Hill RFC, at Bridgend Recreational Centre.

In the first fixture against Bridgend Sports RFC, the Mini Pitmen battled well. By half time, the scores were tied at 7 points apiece. In the second half, Bridgend Sports won the battle of the breakdown, stealing ball too easily. The final score ending Bridgend Sports RFC 28-7 Penallta RFC.

Try scorer: Cai Wardman

Conversion: Cai Wardman

The second game of the day was against Kenfig Hill RFC. Despite a promising start in the first match, the Mini Pitmen seemed to be disheartened in this match. Again, we didn’t secure our own ball at the breakdown, which led to Kenfig Hill stealing the ball much too often. When we did secure our own ball, or stole the opposition ball we panicked in attack, which led to several dropped balls and knock-ons. Final score Kenfig Hill RFC 35-0 Penallta RFC.

During our team de-brief, you could see the look of disappointment on the faces of the Mini Pitmen. They knew that they can and have played much better rugby and knowing this fantastic group of players, they will play better in their next fixture. They’ve already worked hard during the first of this week’s training sessions, and are eager to get into the next one. All of the players want to do well and that’s great to see from a coaching perspective. We’ll write last weekend off, work hard in training and go again this weekend.

Well done to Bridgend Sports RFC and Kenfig Hill RFC and good luck for the rest of the season.

Next up – St Albans RFC (Away).