By L Hammond
Sibling rivalries, at the age of eight are quite often, raw to say the least. Squabbling can occur over the smallest of intricacies. Who gets to the bathroom first in the morning? Who gets to stay on pitch and who goes in goal? Who is his friend and who is my friend? A hierarchy between eight year old sibling brothers remains in constant flux as one continually attempts to outdo the other.
Young brothers are fiercely competitive, young twin brothers further more. Twins, born on the same day, sharing the same aesthetics, can prove to have a rivalry that’s burns even deeper. So to place a set of twins in a team supposed to mould together as an effective unit is an extremely brave move.
Huddersfield U9 rugby union currently have one the largest playing squads at the club with over 30 playing members. 5% of their playing squad are twins, six players, three sets of twins.
The man charged with moulding the sets twins and the squad into an effective team is coach Dave Beal, who insists managing three sets of twins isn’t as hard as some would think: “Is it hard work? No, not all. Thankfully they are all great lads, hardworking, they turn up and they want to play rugby”.
Success at U9 level isn’t marked by results. Under nine rugby sees players compete in season long friendly matches with no league table or points on offer. This is designed to encourage youngsters to play rugby for the love of sport.
One yardstick on how junior rugby teams can be seen to be ‘successful’ is by the number of young players taking part each week. With Huddersfield under nines currently boasting a squad of over 30 players, Dave’s only hope for the coming season is that they keep attendance levels high: “We’ve got a great bunch of guys here, they all come to play but drop-out levels over the season can be high. My one aim is to keep this group of players together until the end of the season and we’ll go from there”.
