Our Age grade teams have recently been on tours. Here are the reports and a selection of photos.
U7
This year the under 7’s set sail for Rochdale festival for their annual tour. The weekend started bright and early when the team and parents descended upon Lockwood Park in full pirate dress ready to brave the long journey across the Pennine seas into Lancashire.
45 minutes later and we had arrived to a warm welcome from Rochdale RUFC. Following a round of bacon sandwiches and a change into the playing kit the boys and girls were ready for a full day of rugby. Playing in a round robin tournament meant that plenty of game time was had which allowed the boys and girls to show off their skills they have worked on and developed throughout the season. Plenty of fast running, side stepping, pulling tags and scoring some amazing tries against some very good teams from Tyldesley, Chester, Bury and Rochdale was the order of the day. Everyone put on a top performance whilst the attending adults offered great support and encouragement from the side-lines.
The day culminated in presentations for the children who have grown physically and in both their rugby ability and as young individuals. The tour was a wonderful way to round off a season off hard work and good fun by the under 7’s. The summer will bring a well-earned break ready for another action packed rugby season starting in September.
Well done everyone.
U8
21 players from the U8s squad took part in the End of Season Tour to Lancashire. Dressed in sponsored track suits and an array of weird and wonderful wigs, we set off to the Rochdale Festival where we entered three teams. The standard of play was excellent and a great showcase after a fantastic season. After the hard work, the squad enjoyed well deserved “downtime” at an outdoor activity centre taking in the “Leap of Faith”, crate stacking and archery. A big thank you to our sponsors (Earnshaw Kay, At Home in the Country, Synexus and Major Golf Direct) without your continued support, tours like this wouldn’t be possible.
U9
What a weekend! Some tough rugby teams on the ‘other side of the hill’ in Lancashire, but the HRUFC U9s held their own admirably with plenty of Yorkshire grit and determination! On Saturday, the sun came out (eventually!) and so did the tough tackles, fancy footwork and epic tries… Rochdale RUFC festival had it all! Following a successful end of season presentation on Saturday night, U9s were Tree Top Trek bound on Sunday morning – great teamwork all weekend, both on and off the field of play. Well done U9s! Here’s to another successful rugby season!
U10
Under 10s went this year to Lancashire. The whole squad came all enjoying the superhero theme. Our stop overnight took us to Lytham St Anne’s before traveling on the Sunday morning to Ormskirk where we played the homeside and Stockport in a three way. The usual opening powerful performance was made by huddersfield but the late night on Saturday might have got the better of some of the lads towards the end. Great rugby great weather and great fun had by all.
U11
The U11’s toured to Lancashire this year with an all-day team building activity at the Anderton Centre in Rivington, nr. Bolton on the Saturday and the Rochdale AG Festival on the Sunday. With the coach full to the gunnels with lads, coaches and parents we headed off from Lockwood in earnest at 9am on Saturday morning. The boys had a wonderful day at Rivington Lake on the Saturday, building and sailing rafts and generally building all manner of bush craft! We headed back to our hotel for dinner and presentation. Myles Lyster was awarded our coveted Clubman award for his all-round performance and conduct throughout the year. The lads got to bed a little later than we would have liked and this showed when we got to Rochdale on the Sunday. We entered 2 teams (Clarets & Golds) and they both lost their first matches out, showing quite a bit of rustiness, which was clearly as a result of a big day before and a late night, but they soon turned things round. Some very good rugby teams attended, which included many we had not played before as well as some old faces in Old Rish & YMCA. Teams from Tyldesley, Aldwinians, Bury, Rochdale gave us a real run for a money, but after playing probably some of the toughest rugby of the season, which including some bone jarring defence in particular, both teams came out with 4 wins and a loss each. All in all a great EOS tour, with some sore heads in the crowd to confirm the good time had by all.
U12
The under 12’s enjoyed a wonderful tour that brought out the inner ‘Rambo’ in both the boys and their parents.
After kitting up and being briefed the intrepid adventurers enjoyed 3 hours of paintballing before setting off to Scarborough. Apart from the odd incident of friendly fire a good time was had by all.
A brilliantly competitive game of beach Rugby followed by a bracing dip in the North Sea set the team up nicely for the next day.
A three way competition with Whitby and Scarborough finished off with a highly physical battle between our two sides ensured that everyone had plenty of Rugby and Huddersfield were victorious!
U13
Aloha! The U13’s decided to take the Hawaiian sunshine with them on tour this year, as the forecast was decidedly unseasonable, so with sunny smiles and extremely colourful shirts the Huddersfield U13’s headed off to compete at the Harrogate festival as part of their end of season tour. Team “Ham” and Team “Pineapple” played 5 games each against a variety of Northern teams, including Wetherby, Kendal, Harrogate and another touring side from Sandbach. We won some and lost some, but this certainly didn’t dampen spirits and we headed off to The Cedar Court Hotel for our highly anticipated end of season presentations.
This year’s recipients were Leo Gardner who received the Development Award, Corey McCormack for Clubman, and Henry Ramsden and Archie Stancliffe who received Coaches Award and Players Player respectively. Team Captain Fraser Morrison was this year’s winner of the esteemed “Mr Bump” award. He is hoping to pass that honour on to someone else next season.
As always many thanks were expressed by players and parents to the tireless work of the coaches, in particular our Head Coach, Michael Stancliffe, ably assisted by Andy Rushby and Freddie Ramsden and Team Manager Ammabel Shelton.
The tour finished off in true team building style with the two teams pitted against each other in a paintballing contest before heading back to Huddersfield to enjoy a well-deserved break from Rugby. See you next season.
U14
U14s travelled to Scarborough in March on their tour. Unfortunately due to bad weather they never got to play a rugby game. Despite the snow Scarborough still hosted them providing indoor facilities and a good time was had by all.
U15
The U15’s have just had the best tour ever starting off by participating in the Harrogate tournament and culminating at Adrenaline in Richmond the day after. The team played really well in the tournament against the likes of Wetherby, Beverley, Bradford Salem and Darlington Mowden Park. Whilst they didn’t win, they played at the highest level and can be really proud of their performance. On the Sunday, they took part in the Adrenaline (Krypton Factor) course in Richmond. As you can see from the pictures, they had a fantastic time and everyone joined in the competitive spirit! Well done everyone, really proud of you all this season and bring on the U16’s!!!!
