Travels with Dinno - At home versus Sheffield

Hello again as we take our latest steps on the mighty journey around Britain with Dinnington Rugby Club. Last weekend the club sent half the team off to Old Brodleians in Hipperholme (near Halifax for the geographically challenged). This was the first XV. They beat their opponents in snowy conditions at least 32-5. I don't have any details of scorers etc.

Meanwhile, back in sunny Dinno, the development team took on local rivals Sheffield. Regular readers will recall, and if you can't the details are in this blog and you clearly haven't been paying attention, that the development team have played Sheffield twice this season and had a draw and a win under their belts. After an early shock try from Sheffield the development forwards kicked into overdrive.

The development pack have always been strong but sometimes can be off the pace. Not last Sunday. They were winning scrums and rucks and were driving and controlling the game. Sheffield had an injured player who couldn't scrum but got stuck in at everything else. Within minutes Travis built on excellent work by Josh and Ronan and just dived across the line to score the first try.

Dinno scored again before half time thanks to Will (apologies if it wasn't and I'm sure somebody will let me know if that's wrong). After half time the team kicked on. The team broke forward and the ball came out to Richard (aka Ches) and he started to run laterally. The air was blue around head coach Dave but it all worked out in the end and he scored the try.

I used to coach rugby for a couple of seasons (u10-u12) and so had to be a little bit restrained when watching the boy play and do well. A ruck formed in the middle of the pack and then all of a sudden Tom appeared from the back of the pack about 20-30m out. He broke one tackle and pushed off another and then broke clear and headed for the line. He was almost caught but given the conditions he chose to dive in and score just by the posts. This was converted. The score was 17 - 5. Sheffield got another back.

Then James S got the ball on the wing. The thing he needs to do is back himself. Once he believes he can do it he will be fine. He burst down the wing and fended off a couple of tackles and then burst into the clear. He then crossed the line and ran round under the posts. His dad was swearing at this and the swearing got worse when James missed his conversion. Final score 27 - 10.

The team as a whole performed excellently. There is a truism in rugby that forwards win you games and backs decide by how many. On this occasion the forwards did both. Afterwards in the bar coach Kev made it clear that the team as a whole was a credit to the Dinnington badge and that they should not feel inferior to anybody.

As ever the food was excellent.

Next week there may be a game against Sandal. So see you soon.

Rugby - It's only a game

This is an offshoot of my Travels with Dinno strand. Last weekend Dinno took on Old Brodleians. This is a team I know well having come up against them a number of times over the years. For the record the result was a loss for Dinno 19 - 31. The first team were up 14 - 5 at half time I think. In the second half the development team with the boy at stand off came on and were blitzed by the aggressive pack play of Brods. This was something I had mentioned to the coaches before the game.

The development team were simply not able to get the ball moving and on the occasions when passes were made they were not taken.  The reason that I am not adding this post to the Travels With Dinno slot is that it has taken me a week to calm down enough to write this post. If I had written it last weekend I would have been less than complimentary to a lot of people. In particular I don't like criticising coaches because I have done it myself.

These are two u13s sides. It is not the deciding match of the Rugby World Cup. In the scheme of things it does not matter. So I would be grateful if there are any readers out there who can explain why it is acceptable for a kid to be left in tears because  his coach and team mates blame him personally for the defeat.

My lad is an intelligent and sensitive lad who loves his rugby. He plays that way as well and always has. It is equally frustrating and brilliant. He and most of the development team were pulled off as Brods took control. The boy had tried passing to people but every time he did they dropped the ball so he took the decision to try and drive things himself by running the ball. Unfortunately what had worked against Scunthorpe didn't work against Brods.

The boy has played stand off half a dozen times and is still learning the role. He needs support and encouragement not to be taken to one side by a coach and being told it was his fault for not passing the ball. Perhaps if the coaches trained the development players better at catching the ball for a while. The development team that went out that day was not the one that has done so well this season.

It also does not speak well of the welcoming nature of the club that your team mates then pile and in blame you as well. I have been made to feel very welcome since coming back down south. My lad has not settled and his fellow players have not really made him feel very welcome some of the time. At times he feels like an outcast.

If you are a coach of junior or mini rugby I urge you to try and encourage your players. Be aware that not everybody is happy and doesn't feel part of things. Also don't make statements that are not then backed up because you end up with a situation that players don't believe you.

So to those people who may have wondered where I had gone this is my explanation. To those who helped the boy and got in touch with me a huge thank you. You know who you are.

Rant over and hopefully normal service will be resumed soon with the boy back and enjoying his rugby.

The festive season and Travels with Dinno 2013: Scunthorpe

Well greetings from the Costa del Worksop. The weather in these last few weeks since my last post has been a balmy barely getting into single figures and the heatwave is set to continue into the weekend.

My daily sojourns to work in Sutton In Ashfield, cultural hub of Nottinghamshire, have been interrupted by rain, floods, vanilla drivers[1], the festive season, a lethal dose of flu and work.  I survived the festive season by entering that state of my being known as ‘grumpy old bastard’.

Despite my illness I cooked and entertained over two weekends and also survived the annual visit to the in laws and the reactions to various seasonal offerings.

Due to the weather rugby finished early and due to the illness the planned visit to the club on Boxing Day was shelved.

Last weekend I revisited a place I have not been for probably 13 years. The club’s first fixture of 2013 was in ‘sunny Scunny’. Well if we are being strictly accurate ‘misty, cold Scunthorpe’.  I used to visit the place a couple of times each year when my sister was in Irish dancing tournaments every weekend. I have always visited it either in the dark or on a train and so this visit was a new experience, actually visiting for something I enjoyed. My previous visit was for business purposes. I attended a business conference where the person delivering it said that ‘If your friends don’t support your business get rid of them and get some new ones.’ Shortly after this revelatory conference I decided where they could stick the business.

In this life you will encounter many people a few of whom will become friends. Of these, a handful will become true friends who may not always agree with you but will be there for you. I decided that these people were more important to me than wealth, which was by no means guaranteed.

Anyway back to the rugby. The journey up the motorways was relatively uneventful, apart from the police car at the entry to the M180 and the unmarked police car a few miles further on which had pulled over a motorist. The weather drifted from beautiful sunshine right through to full blown mirk.

Scunthorpe have a nice little set up. The clubhouse is well maintained and the pitches had held up well in the weather. I was missing the staff and bell around my neck. The gentle banter of the Dinno parents was a joy as I announced that I was recovering from flu.

The match started with the development team. The boy was at fly half again. The game started at a fast pace and quickly Dinno started to dominate with strong passing and driving runs. We soon went 7-0 up with a try from Olly and a conversion from Will (I think). The referee was praised because he clearly explained his decisions to the players even if those decisions left the spectating parents somewhat baffled at times. The development team maintained their style of play but were unable to make another breakthrough and Scunthorpe despite their pack appearing to tire early on managed to get the ball out to their backs who had plenty in the tank.

The development team lack the devastating pace of some of the first XV and so could not catch their opposition. That being said they played rugby in the right way. At half time the score was 15-7 to Scunthorpe. In the second half the first XV turned things around and the score finished 38-20 to Dinno. 

Normally I would go into detail about scorers etc but I didn’t keep a track of what was happening. I would also normally comment on the refreshments available at the club but due to the delicate state of my constitution I didn’t sample the delights on offer, maybe next time.

The weekly awards went to Kieran, Jake, Ben and, much to my surprise, the boy. He seems to have taken to the position of fly half and he at least went home happy. I remarked to the coach before I knew this that he had come off and for the first time had had no complaints[2].

The boy is starting to settle within the team and is starting to enjoy his rugby more. He now has a rowing machine to train on and is at least thinking about his fitness.

Weather permitting this weekend we are against Old Brods a blast from the Huddersfield days. They like to grind out the results through the pack and if you don’t try and blast down the middle and use width you should beat them.

See you beside a rugby pitch soon.

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[1] Drivers who are physically incapable of driving at any speed other than 40mph

[2] The boy has a tendency to overanalyse his performance and that of his teams and be a bit hypercritical. We are trying to get him to lighten up a bit but he is a teenager and so there is little danger of that.

Travels with Dinno (4/11/12): Sheffield Part 2: The Revenge

Hello again rugby fans. It is that time of the week when I regale you with my travels around the country in support of Dinnington u13s. This week's fun and frolics were at Sheffield RUFC at Abbeydale Park. This was our second visit of the year and as ever the ties were much anticipated. Local bragging rights were on offer.

The weather was dull and icy cold. The boy had goosepimples on his goosepimples. Like a typical teenager he just stood there shivering. He refused the offer of hot chocolate (which was very nice by the way especially with the bacon sandwich). It didn't occur to him to keep his tracksuit bottoms on. He stood there like a typical teenager grunting when asked questions and trying to convince the world that he is tough and that the icy cold didn't bother him.

So on to the match. First up with the two first XVs. Sheffield quickly set about their business of getting revenge for the absolute thumping they got last time. They went 12 - 0 up. Shortly after a try was not awarded to Dinno but we couldn't see why but then Adam shot down the wing and got one back. The difficult conversion was missed and the score was 12-5. After that we didn't trouble the scorers and Sheffield ran out 29-5 winners. The first XV did not seem to be up for the match and there was possibly a hangover from last week's match. Their usual fluency was just not there and Sheffield made the most of it.

While all this was going on the second XV were spending their time periodically running laps around the pitch to keep them warm and limbered up.

The match started and as with the match a few weeks ago this was a tight affair. The forwards were pumped and were driving and mauling and stealing possession. The thing they did differently this time was that they moved the ball out to the backs. The boy was playing at Fly Half (his fourth position of the season) and seemed to thrive. He is not a natural there as he has no kicking game at all. What he did do was keep things moving. He worked with Sam at scrum half dictating moves and with Kieran and James in the backs. They were communicating with each other. When they got the ball they ran it. The icing on the cake was that they passed the ball early after drawing in the man and created space.

After an aggressive forwards move the ball came out to the boy who popped up a pass to Brad who ran it in  for a try in the corner 5-0 at half time.

The performance continued after half time as before. The boy got into a position near the try line and could probably have run in the try himself but he gave the ball to Kieran who scored near the posts and then Brendan put the conversion over. After that Sheffield started to feed in their first team players partly due to injuries (all three hookers were injured in the matches). They scored two tries due to speed and pace on the break.

Personally I think the draw flattered them a bit. Dinno were worthy of the win. The most pleasing aspect was the all round display. There were forwards running down the wing, making driving runs through the middle of the pitch. When it came to picking the awards after the match the award could have gone to any number of players.

It was rugby at its best. Next week Dinno face Morley in the Yorkshire Cup 2nd round.

PS any suggestions of bias in my reporting of matches is entirely justified because like everybody else involved I am biased. Happy rugby.

Travels with Dinno: Aireborough

Greetings fellow travellers. This week's installment takes us up the road to Leeds. Dinno visited Aireborough RUFC. Despite them being relatively local to Huddersfield where I coached and where the boy played our only meeting with them had been at Keighley festival a couple of years ago. For the record Huddersfield won comfortably.

We set off slightly later than planned and the rushed back because I had forgotten to bring the directions. I tend to travel using the force. The dark side is strong within me and I can go somewhere once and more or less find the way there again even if I take a wrong turn.

Aireborough is based in Yeadon which is the next 'town' along from Rawdon where I used to work. For the record I don't much like Leeds as a place and went there very infrequently. As a driver the place is a nightmare as the road signs are terrible. But that is by the by.

We regularly passed the club on our way to Ilkley or Otley. When we arrived we had difficulty finding anywhere to park. We headed towards the clubhouse then up to some rugby pitches where we ran into Kev who said we were on another pitch. We headed over in the direction we had been sent and just about managed to avoid the people doing the orienteering. The pitch we were on was reached by going down a bank with some very dodgy steps carved into it, over a bridge which was slippy beyond belief and up another bank.

The track was saturated and the mud was deep. It felt like some kind of endurance course just to get to the pitch.

The match started and straight away Aireborough put us under pressure. They preferred the kicking game and it seemed to work for them. We had most of the territory, most of the possession and looked more likely to produce something. However, we didn't play with our brains and we lost a game we should have comfortably won. The score finished 5-0 to Aireborough. Our problem was that we kept running into contact when we didn't need to. As a team we need to learn that individuals cannot beat 15 players on their own and the support needs to be better. There is no faulting the effort and work rate of the team at all.

On a slightly irritable note the referee did appear to be a bit of a 'homer'. Three times in the first half he gave Aireborough (he was an Aireborough coach) the put in at scrums which should have gone to Dinno and when a similar thing happened in Aireborough's favour in the second half he made the correct call and gave them the scrum. I don't like criticising refs because they do a hard job and even the top refs make mistakes but such obvious oversights only fosters resentment amongst young players and supporters alike. That being said even if the ref had been from Dinnington it is by no means certain that he would have favoured them over Aireborough.

It is a bit difficult to judge the food on offer as it had taken so long to actually get to the club and with the state of the ground I didn't actually go and get anything to eat until after the match. By that time the bacon was cold but appeared to be well cooked. The players meal was pasta which seemed to go down well by and large.

This weekend we were due to operate a dual site policy with half the players going to Sheffield and the other half back up the M1 to Moortown in Leeds. However, last night Moortown cancelled the fixture and so everybody is now going to Sheffield this weekend.

Wherever you are enjoy your rugby and glory in this marvellous sport which we support week in and week out.

Travels with Dinno - Goole

Following our family's move to the Costa Del Worksop we needed to find a new rugby club for my son. He had played at Huddersfield RUFC since the age of 5. We had a number of club choices in the 'greater' Worksop area. Worksop has a rugby club but not one that plays age group rugby. So the choices were Mansfield, Sheffield and Dinnington. We were invited to the end of season festival at Dinnington and were given a very warm welcome.

So that is where we started the season. The coaches seemed to like Tom and were excited that he could play in a few positions. First match of the season was against Market Rasen. This was a team which we had never played before.  When I was just a parent standing on the sidelines I used to judge a club by its bacon rolls and hot food. Market Rasen served very good bacon rolls and hot chocolate.

Tom started his first match at blindside flanker. He performed reasonably well and did the job he was asked to do. Unfortunately the team lost 31-25. It was a game of two halves with the development team starting the first and showing promise. The first team came on and scored 5 unanswered tries.

The club's next game was a local derby against Sheffield. The last time Tom visited this club he had to play without boots. the last time he played against them he was on a losing team. Two matches were played. The first team played the first game. After a slow start the first team absolutely dominated and came out 31-12. The second team won their match 15 - 13. This was a display of forward power. Two tries were drive over tries and one was a piece of individual brilliance by our beast of a flanker who is henceforth known as Rupert. The boy played on the wing and had a reasonably good game again. Since joining Dinno his tackling has improved somewhat

The food was very good but the parking was lousy.

Today we visited Goole another new club for us. So what did I learn today? That Google Maps has no idea about how to get somewhere. The food was pretty good. Bacon and brie rolls and very good hot chocolate. Only one minor criticism. When you are serving a customer don't tell your helper to give the customer a smaller mug for his hot chocolate.

The rugby was good. The squad was smaller than usual (a mere 24 players). The stars were new boy Jake and the beast that is Rupert. The club has a definite first team and a number of the players in the 'development' team are good enough to be in the first team. The coaches have made a point of telling the whole squad this. The boy started on the wing and made some good drives and some good tackles. At half time the game was comfortable. Changes were then made and the team switched off and then Goole got back into the match. However, the team kept the scoreboard ticking over and ended up winning 36 - 26. The boy had another solid performance and just needs to get the ball in space and he will start to do some serious damage.

The players meal was, according to the boy, the best he has ever had. For the record it was some kind of stew inside a huge Yorkshire pudding.

Throughout the season I will be reporting on our travels around the country to points north, south, east and west.

Come on Dinno!!!!