Waunarlwydd RFC (Away) 03/01/10

A game has been confirmed with

Waunarlwydd RFC
Roseland Road
Waunarlwydd
Swansea
SA5 4ST
Tel: 01792 873285

Please meet at 10.30am for some warm up drills and a Kick Off at 11.00am.

Directions:-

1. Head northwest on B4433/Mumbles Rd
2. Turn left at B4436/Derwen Fawr Rd 1.2 mi
3. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto A4216/Sketty Park Rd 0.2 mi
4. Turn right at A4216/Dillwyn Rd Continue to follow A4216 Go through 2 roundabouts 1.7 mi
5. Turn left at B4295/Cwmbach Rd Continue to follow B4295 1.5 mi
6. Turn right at B4295/Swansea Rd 374 ft
7. Slight right at Roseland Rd Destination will be on the right

2009 Review

Well done and a big thank you to everyone who entered into the spirit of the Xmas funday, players and supporters alike. Mr Gregg Fabb wins the fancy dress 1st prize in his red longjohns, although Scott Caplin's hat and Phil Jones' modern dance outfit were a close second and third. I think the Parents proved to be testing opponents, but on the day they weren't quite up to the high standard of the Players.

We will have a break this coming weekend (27/12/09)to enjoy the festivities, but we aim to rejoin again on 03/01/10 to play away at Waunarlwydd. Details on times and directions will follow on the blog next week, but for now I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I have some Kooga Vortex MRFC training tops for those that couldn't make it on the day. I can either distibute them in the New Year, or if you would prefer you can contact me this week if you want to give them out for Xmas.

2009 has proved a mixed bag with great weather and rugby on offer through September and October, but with November a bit if a damp squib to say the least. The Players individual skills are really beginning to develop, but more importantly in my book, they all seem to be enjoying it and getting to know each other more as a team, on and off the pitch, which will pay great dividend in the future. Thank you to all of you who have contributed to the building of the team through the year, be it supporting in the cold and rain, collecting tags and carrying bags, fundraising, assisting with the coaching, or helping on the catering front. Your continued contributions through 2010 will again be highly valued and will no doubt assist in keeping the team and club something to be very proud to be a part of.

"The Frost Report" 20/12/09 0930hrs

We intend to meet as planned (10.45am-11.00am) at Underhill to see if pitches have thawed out enough. If pitches are deemed unplayable, then the backup plan is to congregate at Caswell beach for around 11.30am.

FUNDAY 20th DECEMBER

Please accept my apologies to all, the Funday is this Sunday the 20th December (not 27th as originally posted).


A nice lay in awaits this week with a later kick off time of 11am for the Parents v Players game at Underhill Park, then all back to the Rugby Club after the match.

PONTARDDULAIS (BONT) REPORT

I felt genuine progress was being made in a (purposely) short match against a very enthusiastic and competitive U8's Bont outfit that have had a full 12 months more experience than us. The Vikings seemed to take a bit of the concept of supporting the ball carrier (which we practised beforehand) into the match, more than before. The fact that we had a game of any description was a triumph in itself after all the rain in the last 6-7 weeks, and given the cold conditions I thought everyone did fantastically well(especially all parents stood freezing on the touchline) - your steadfast support is really appreciated.

On that note, you will all have the opportunity to keep warm this Sunday at Underhill Park in the Xmas Players v Parents match - Mums, Dads, Gramps and Grans not to mention Aunts and Uncles are all welcome to join in - Santa hats and red tops are obligatory for all Adults since it is Christmas!(times to be advised).

We will combine with the u6's and play on the top soccer pitch and have Hot Dogs and some Xmas treats afterwards. (Again, exact times and post match venue to be advised).

looking positive for Sunday!

Hip hip hooray! The sun is shining and with the forecast looking positive, we are hoping for one last tag game before 2010 is upon us.

Pontardulais have confirmed they have a team for us to play. Please be at Bishopston soon after 10am, hopefully we will have a 10.30 kick off.

We are also hoping for a Vikings vs Dads, Mums, Grampa, Grandma, Uncle, Auntie extravaganza on the 20th December. More details to follow.

See you all on Sunday for the match!

BUYING PRESENTS USING AMAZON?

If so you can help the club raise funds by using the link posted on the Mumbles Wildcats blog (see sidebar). It will cost no more than the price through Amazon would anyway, but the club will receive a small % of the value of the goods as cashback from Amazon.

Uplands Game Cancelled

When will the rain end? ............... probably when the snow starts!

Swansea Uplands this Sunday

With the weather seemingly drier this week we are hopeful for a run out at Swansea Uplands this Sunday. Meet at their club around 1020hrs.

Directions to their club can be found here.

"Rain Rain, Go Away..............!"

Following a common theme this month, I'm sorry to say that the pitches have unfortunately once again been confirmed as waterlogged and unplayable by Bishopston sports centre. Hopefully we will get less rain in December to allow us to play some rugby.

Sunday 29th November

Whilst the weather continues to push the boundaries, we are hoping to be able to host Waunarlwydd at 10.30am at Bishopston School with hot dogs provided at the Cricket club 12.00-12.30pm. Please ensure you check the blog between 09.30hrs and 10.00hrs before you leave on Sunday morning and/or switch on your mobile phones to receive a Teamer text for notification of any cancellation.

LOUGHER GAME CANCELLED

Once again this month, the weather has unfortunately been the winner instead of the rugby.

22/11/09 LOUGHER RFC AWAY

We have been invited by Lougher RFC U7's for an AWAY game on 22/11/09. Please arrive at 10.15am in time for kit distribution / warm up and a K.O. at 10.30am.

Address :-
LOUGHOR RFC
Villa field
Belgrave road
Swansea
West glamorgan
SA4 6RF
Tel: 01792 894109

DIRECTIONS:- Coming from motorway heading west get off at junction 47. At the roundabout take 3rd exit onto A48 heading to the A4240 Gorseinon. At roundabout take 2nd exit onto A4240 onto Gorseinon Road. Keep going into Gorseinon, through the 2 main traffic lights. On the 3rd set of main lights take a left onto Bryn Road. Then the 2nd left onto Belgrave Road. The club is on the left hand side 200yds off the turning.

GAME CANCELLED FOR 15/11/09

The pitches have unfortunately been confirmed as waterlogged and unplayable by Bishopston sports centre. You should hopefully also receive a 'Teamer' text message informing you of the cancellation.

Live music spectacular at the club!

Don't miss a special appearance by The Contenders at Mumbles Rugby Club next Saturday (21st November). Tickets are £3 in advance or £5 on the night. Mike will be selling tickets at Bishopston this Sunday (and at the cricket club afterwards). The Contenders are sponsoring the u12s this year, and all proceeds will go to the new kit.

Captains for the Week

Sunday 15th November

This Sunday we will host Gowerton RFC at Bishopston School 10.30am with hot dogs at Mumbles Cricket Club afterwards at 12pm.

UPLANDS R.F.C. MATCH REPORT

Once again "rugby was the winner", and hopefully everyone enjoyed both the game and their hot dogs at the Rugby Club. Thanks go to a well drilled Uplands team for playing 2 sets of Mumbles Vikings teams captained by Luca and Josh respectively. Uplands showed some good individual skills and supporting of the ball carrier, with both teams' parents providing good natured and positive support . Thanks also go to Paul Cawsey Williams for his assistance, - if anyone else fancies helping out on either the rugby or catering front then please don't be shy - volunteers are always welcome (but apologies if I don't manage to include everyone every week). If you do fancy helping out, then please feel free to contact me on 01792 361870 or 07974747993or gbroad@live.co.uk before the Sunday to confirm your availability, and it will give me a chance to think of some drills and split the squad accordingly.

TRAINING & MATCH IS STILL ON !

Aplogies for the VERY late notice this week, but we have been let down by the groundstaff at Underhill who didn't contact the Parks Dep't by 09.30hrs as they are supposed to.

SUNDAY 8th NOVEMBER

A soccer pitch has been booked at Underhill for a training session starting at 10.30am with a possible game at 11am against Uplands U7's. The 2 rugby pitches are already booked, so weather and Parks Dep't permitting, we will be allocated one of the 5 soccer pitches at Underhill Park, (probably the 'top' soccer pitch but also possibly the pitch over the hedge by the playground).

As stated last week, with heavy rain forecast at present for Friday and Saturday, it will be important to check the blog at 09.30am Sunday before setting off, to see if "Underwater Park" once again lives up to it's now infamous reputation. If all else fails, you can always take some bread down and feed the ducks on the 'pond' (sorry - rugby pitch)!

TRAINING CANCELLED FOR 01/11/09

Even though the current monsoon conditions are forecast to improve through the day, and it would have been a testing skill session to hold a 'sub aqua rugby session', the pitches themselves have unfortunately been confirmed as waterlogged and unplayable by Bishopston sports centre. You should hopefully have received a 'Teamer' text message informing you of the cancellation, but it is always worthwhile to also check this blog on the morning of every session for any last minute changes as late as 9.30am.) Please also feel free to contact Bishopston on 235040 or Underhill on 205522 or myself on 361870 for any further clarification.

Sunday 1st November

10.30 a.m. at Bishopston School again this week.

Sunday 25th October

The arrangements are to meet at 10.30 am at Bishopston once again, but this time for a training session rather than a match. Lee Thomas has very kindly offered to hold the training session this week to allow me a half term weekend break, and he can be contacted on 07702887129 if you have any further queries or if you would like to offer him any assistance.

South Gower Match Report

Some great rugby was enjoyed by both teams on Sunday with some excellent skills on show. The South Gower Seahorses were evidently a well drilled team with some talented individual players, matched by a no less talented and enthusiastic large group of Vikings. Well done to all, including once again two very good natured sets of supporters who needed to give the sometimes dubious refereeing plenty of leeway.

POST MATCH HOSPITALITY

If there are any willing volunteers out there who want to contribute to the post match experience, then Claire Rees has kindly offered to co-ordinate a combined U7’s & U8’s hot dog ‘rota’ of sturdy souls to organise the purchasing, cooking and distributing of the food. Purchases will be refunded on presentation of a receipt from Club funds. Claire can be contacted on 01792 419190 or 07920250314 or claire.rees@astrazeneca.com

DUNVANT MATCH REPORT & ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER

DUNVANT MATCH REPORT
Firstly our sincere thanks go to Dunvant R.F.C. U7’s players who, in miserable conditions provided a full U7’s Tag team for 3 continuous thirds of a game in the drizzle to enable all our 18 players a share of some match time each. Once again ‘Rugby was the winner’ on the day and I thought all players from both teams did especially well given the weather, with all parents from both teams deserving a big pat on the back too for their very good natured support. Long may it continue!

ARRANGEMENTS FOR THIS SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER
I hope those of you who came back for the post match experience enjoyed it, and that you didn’t suffer from ‘cabin fever’ given the rain forcing all teams inside. We will be at Bishopston again this Sunday 18th October at 10.30am, and aim to play South Gower RFC – a.k.a. the mighty ‘Seahorses’. Given that we have a nice long range weather forecast for the week, and the Rugby Club is likely to be busy with European Cup action, I have accepted another kind invite from the Cricket Club to use their facilities after our game and hope that we can enjoy hosting South Gower while watching the Ospreys in action (K.O. 12.45pm).

Dunvant this Sunday

We have a game against dunvant this Sunday. They have assured us they have enough players for a full U7s game so we will play against boys and girls of our age group.

We will meet at Bishopston at 10.30.

After the match everyone is invited to the Mumbles Cricket Club where all players will be able to have a hotdog! The club is situated on Plunch Lane in Limeslade.

Gowerton Match Report

A really warm and friendly welcome greeted us at Gowerton, who were playing their first competitive match.

Well done the Vikings!

Watching from the sidelines today, it was obvious to me and the other Mums and Dads cheering on the team, how much progress the team has made in the short space of time we have been together!

There were some really fantastic tagging, running, passing and of course try scoring! Three thirds were played to make sure everyone had a fair share on the pitch, and I am fairly certain all that were on the pitch contributed in one way or another.

Keep up the enthusiasm everyone!

Details for next weeks arrangements to be posted later in the week.

MATCH THIS SUNDAY!

Gowerton play host to the mighty Vikings this Sunday! We will meet at their ground at around 10.30 for a 11.00 kick off. Click here for directions to the ground.

See you all Sunday.

LAST MINUTE CHANGE OF PLANS!

In a bold move by Grant, he has secured us a match against the mighty Dunvant. This will be played at Broadacre. We will arrange to meet there at 10.30am for a kick off soon after. This fixture proved to be a great experience last year for the Wildcats.

Directions to Dunvant RFC can be found here.

See you all Sunday!

Sunday 27th September

INTERNATIONAL TICKET UPDATE - You will need to be either a paid up playing or family member of Mumbles R.F.C. to obtain tickets throught the club. Membership of the Vikings team covers an U7's Player's Membership and also includes a discounted Family Membership to Mumbles R.F.C. If you have already paid your Vikings Membership please see me to obtain your membership book with Membership number so that you can then present it at the club on request. The membership book also contains all the 6 Nations Draw vouchers if the clubhouse 'bar list' is oversubscribed.

International Rugby Tickets

All parents of registered Mumbles Junior Players enjoy 'Family Membership' of the club. This entitles you to, amongst other things, apply for International Tickets from the club's allocation. The procedure is simple. The club buys tickets in advance (around August for the Autumn Internationals and a bit later for the 6 Nations). If you want to buy a ticket, you must write your name and "Under 7s" (or whatever junior team you are involved with) and your phone number on the list that is put up on the message board wall of the downstairs bar in the clubhouse. The message board is found on the wall just facing the bar itself (in between the main room and the small adjoining room on the left). There is a list for each match. If the game is not over subscribed, you will then be allocated a ticket and can pay for it at the bar. If the list is over subscribed you will be entered in a lottery.

From recent experience, many Autumn International tickets are not highly subscribed so you would stand a very good chance of getting one. For the 6 nations of course there is much more demand.

Lists are up NOW for New Zealand (7th November), Australia (28th November) and Argentina (21st November, the cheaper option this Autumn).

SUNDAY 20/09/09 10am TRAINING AT UNDERHILL

Penclawdd don't have an U7's, so hope to see you for training at the park instead. Please can you provide player's chest sizes to Rhian or myself for the ordering of kit. Membership fees are also due if you haven't already set up a £3.50 p.c.m. Standing Order or submitted a Cheque for £42.00. If you choose the Direct Debit / Standing order option, please use player's name as a reference for identificaiton. Alternatively please submit any cash in a sealed envelope with the player's name written on front.

Match Report - Morriston

On a glorious Sunday morning, the Vikings showed what they are capable of. There were visible improvements from all players. The tagging, running, passing and defensive skills were excellent. It was a close game, the result not important, the performance was superb. Well done everyone!

With the glorious weather, it wasn't a real surprise that there were only a few of the team back at the club. As promised, Grant and I had to polish off the remaining hot-dogs, with Grant victorious this week, 6 hot-dogs to 5. Well done Grant!

Hopefully, as the season progresses we will see more of you at either the rugby club, or cricket club post match.

Details for next week to follow.

AFTER MATCH HOSPITALITY

A long standing tradition after Rugby matches (that we would like to see continue with the Mumbles Vikings) is to accompany our opponents for some post match refreshment (a quick squash and a hot dog), and if you are still feeling up to it after that, an in depth analysis of some of the finer points of the game that day! This week we are acting as hosts, and all Vikings and opponents are warmly welcomed back to the M.R.F.C. Clubhouse. (Please refer to main club website for it's location). Any unclaimed hot dogs will have to be eaten by Matthew and myself, so if you could use the comment button to indicate if you will NOT be able to attend from week to week (preferably before Saturday when I aim to buy the food) it would greatly assist in maintaining our svelt waistlines! Don't forget membership fees are due this week, and an indication of player's chest sizes are also needed for the ordering of kit. Hope to see you Sunday at Bishopston 0930hrs and then after the match at the Rugby Club.

Game(s) this Sunday!

Meet at Bishopston Comprehensive School for games against Morriston and Aberavon Green Stars. If we aim to meet at 9.30 we should then have two games against our illustrious opponents at around 10.00.

See you all bright and early Sunday morning!

Skewen match report

After a long wait, the Mumbles Vikings finally made their debuts on the rugby pitch. We faced a stern test against Skewen who could only field 5 U7 players. Therefore we faced a team that contained 7 players who already had a years tag rugby experience under their velcro belts!

The team gave a very good account of themselves. The tagging, passing and try scoring aspects were all very, very encouraging. As confidence builds, we can expect more of the same, there are signs of the team developing into a really good outfit.

Thanks go to Skewen for providing us with a warm welcome and the after match hospitalities!

More details of the arrangements for next Sunday to follow later this week.

Skewen Match directions

First match of the season (assuming it stops raining) is at our old friends Skewen.Meet at the ground at 10:20 for an 11:00 start. We will have a light training session before our game. It takes about 25 minutes to get there from Mumbles. Directions to Skewen rugby club can be found by clicking here. The ground is at Tennant Park (SA10 6HU) on the way to Neath. I think the best way to is all the way along Oystermouth Road and cross the river turning up towards Llansamlet (A217). Carry on to Llansamlet and turn right onto the A48 (towards the M4). When you get to the roundabout for the M4, take the exit to Skewen (4th exit A4230), after about a mile, take a right turn into Christopher Road, take the second right into Coombes road and then straightish on towards Charles Street. The club and playing fields will be in front of you. (Assuming you negotiate the one-way system successfully). The club website is here.

Skewen - this Sunday 6th September

Details to follow. We are still negotiating our kick off time with Skewen, directions and more details will be posted asap.

Great turn out for the first session of the season down at the park last Sunday. We were really impressed with all the players attitudes and wilingness to listen to instruction. Bodes well for the future!

Welcome!

Welcome to the new blog for the Mumbles Vikings U7 Rugby team. We hope the players have had a good introduction to the sport of Rugby and are now raring to put their skills into practice against other teams from in and around Ospreylia.

It should prove to be an exciting season and hopefully a successful and enjoyable one for the team.