Travels with Dinno end of season festival

About a year ago my son and I made our first visit to Dinnington RUFC at the invitation of the head coach for Tom's age group. It was the festival and Tom was made to feel welcome by those he met. A year on and there have been many ups and downs along the way. Today was the festival. The first problem was arriving unfeasibly early and the depth of my mistake can be felt in two ways. One my face has rather caught the sun. However, like many people of a goth background I do not feel the need to show flesh  and so I was well covered up (thank God for that I hear many of you cry).

I loitered around viewing the stalls and eating the copious food that was on offer throughout the morning. I'm waiting for the botulism to kick in as open air cooking tends to not be the most inspired way to cook.

Whilst waiting for our match to start I watched a team of Under 12s from Wymondham who were presumably on tour. The first match I saw was against Dinnington who I had watched earlier and who had played well. Wymondham took them apart.  Wymondham then appeared to struggle against Sheffield. Last up for them was Sandal. I am no great fan of Sandal. They appear to have a win at all costs mentality and this on occasion descends to bending rules past the point of breaking in order to do it. The first half was a tight affair with both sides playing expansive running rugby. They moved the ball from one flank to the other. Neither side could break the other down. Half time score was 0-0.

In the second half Wymondham had to go uphill. This did not stop them and they managed to get over in the right hand corner. After about another ten minutes they started a move on the right flank and then by force of numbers and by moving the ball they drove over in the middle of the pitch. Final score 14-0.

Then we were treated to Dinnington u11s beating Sheffield 35-0.

Then came the u13s game against Scunthorpe. Through the season our results against them had been mixed. This was always going to be a tight game. The first half saw a lot of effort by both sides with Dinno's forwards stealing ball and making yards. The problem was that the ball wasn't really getting to the backs to do any damage. Half time score 0-0.

In the second half some changes were made in Dinno's team. The pack lacked some of its power from the first half and the backs didn't quite have the ability to break Scunthorpe down. Scunthorpe only got two chances in the whole match. Unfortunately for us they took them. Final score Dinno 0 - 12 Scunthorpe.

There is a lot of promise within the team and the future looks good if the progress that has been made thus far is continued.