The young players at Newport Rugby Club had a double dose of matches last weekend, when in addition to the usual Sunday session, the club entertained touring side Caldy on Saturday.
This was a return fixture from when the Newport mini and midi players had visited the Wirral based club while on tour two years ago. Over 200 players were on the park across all ages from under-7 to under-12 with the younger squads having two or three matches.
Newport under-7s, under-8s, and under-9s had good wins in some of their matches with the under-8s displaying good support play and tagging.
The under-11s had a great win, having started strongly, then conceding three tries before scoring again to leave points level with time for a crucial conversion which Ollie Dixon kicked to seal the win.
The under-10s and under-12s faced particularly strong opposition with Caldy under-12s being county champions.
It was a compliment to the Newport squad that Caldy rated them as being their strongest opponents for some time.
Under-10s coach David Hodson said: “Caldy were a great team to play. Tough opposition, just what our team needed.”
A feature of visits by touring sides is the opportunity for a ‘coaches and dads’ match and last Saturday was no exception. As a curtain raiser to the first team game, Newport fielded a fine squad of coaches and dads to face their opposite numbers from Caldy.
This was their opportunity to demonstrate that they could play as well as they coach and encourage.
And they did. Facing a large and powerful looking side, they produced a spectacle of free flowing rugby and with superior fitness showing in the second half, ran the opposition off the park to a 15-0 victory.
