Thanks Steve

When I say passing I mean in the most basic form, but specifically passing rather than offloading in the tackle that most other teams seem to do in a fairly haphazard way in the main. We see week after we see kids surrounding the ball carrier all shouting for the ball and most of the time when the ball comes out it is pot luck were it goes. We are trying to get them to pass the ball before getting to the line rather than offloading in the tackle - all very basic.

The thing we are really working on in addition to the core skills and general physical development is running onto the ball and taking it from the dummy half at (a some) pace rather than standing waiting for it and running when they have caught it. The lads are getting this idea slowly but surely, and are also getting the idea of moving in as a defensive line when the ball is passed.

2 weeks ago we had a bit of a blip and had a bad day at the office with not a right lot going for us - I was on holiday so can't really say what specifically went wrong - but it was apparently one of those days when they forget everything they have learned against a decent Shaw Cross team.

Last week we went to Kippax missing a few of our main tacklers but the rest of the kids really stepped up and despite the scoreline put in just about our best performance of the season in very hot conditions against a much bigger side who had a full season last season under their belts.

Had basically a mess about session on Monday's training and the kids loved it acting about, will have a steady session tonight given the heat and then our last game before the break is Newsome on Sunday then it's Gala and friendly time during the holidays.

They all seem to be really enjoying it (coaches and parents included), and are improving nicely on the whole in their first season.

I think Stanley can be very proud of their effort and in the end a little unfortunate not to have won.maybe with a little bit more composure it could have been a different result.

Still it was great entertainment for the neutral and well worth the ride out.

Its with sadnesses that I report that big jack was admitted in hospital last night .
Jack as been very I'll recently and as a asthma sufferer as found the last few weeks being I'll hard.
This was ironically the 1st time he's played a full match in a couple of months and in that heat his contribution was fantastic.

Get well soon Jack from the Gibbo's and you know what to do when ur out mate.

Missed this , been .

Fabulous result for ossett against a team normally stacked with hull wyke players.

Nice one

Glad to see the problems that Shaw cross had have gone .

Many thanks to the scores of 101call s .

A large mess left to clear by thankful for the fact our galas can be played.

Another good performance from a depleted panthers u13s saw them beat bottom side Milford 30-6. Pitty Milford don't put the same effort into playing rugby has they do wanting to fight.

Think that's it for the this end of season, now instead of playing in summer we all take a break and then come back with kids over age .

I struggle to see sense in this set up. The YJL have in their wisdom arranged games for clubs with games in hand to play at the same time as BARLA will be drawing cup ties.

This is the case in all age groups etc . its crazy and really has you wondering when is the season end ?

Last year we finished the season but had already won the BARLA cup as did their other winners.

Again all BARLA winners will have the same problem finish the season but will be that seasons BARLA winners !

Does that make sense

I can understand and it's a odd situation again,I'm afraid nothing has improved on last years shambles. That said our league mutts has been the best year by far in terms of quality and excitement but again it's been over shadowed by a series of injuries to young lads playing on concrete like pitches.

For a variety of reasons we will be taking a serious look at alternative competitions!

I have said this all along, if the pitch was frozen we would not be allowed to play on them, however the pitches are far harder than a frozen pitch and I was watching a game yesterday morning that had received a light sprinkling of rain around 8am, as the sun hadn't come out the light grass was extremely slippery and the ground below rock solid, 4 players went of in that game with sprained ankles, there was also three players playing with their knees cut to shreds.
Summer rugby doesn't seem to be working for kids/youth/junior, I can agree that open age rugby should be brought in line with the rest of the game but I see no advantage in aligning the junior game as well

IMO clubs were hoodwinked into thinking there would be help with watering/irregarion of playing areas something which would help make it a success.the rfl have failed clubs with this and I'm not too sure the injuries are been reported or taken seriously, I don't think any club escapes injuries regardless of when their played but the numbers in games quite recently is staggering.


Out of interest why did the game between east Leeds v crigg not get played??

Said years ago when this was first touted that its the wrong way to go, we'll see more and more injuries and kids being wrecked by 16.

Broken bones a plenty sadly.

Totally agree.

East Leeds called it off - lack of players was the reason I was told .

Some lads have suffered very bad injuries from a variety of leagues and clubs.

I just fear that its going to take a very bad one before YJL start helping. BARLA and Schools seem to sway over to winter and cancel the unplayable games. Thankfully no games this weekend I know that crigglestone is like concrete at the moment .

Here's hoping for a monsoon last week of the summer.

why can't we go back to sept-nov and march-june ?? nothing wrong there with me.

The issue of hard pitches can be alleviated , we've spent the money and watered the pitch when necessary, sometimes spending 6 or 7 hours the day before a game (costing £25/£30 a time) making sure we improved its condition as much as possible. I know many other clubs can't/don't do this for whatever reasons and we've played on some concrete dust bowls that probably weren't ideal. The issue of dried out pitches is exaserbated by the lack of grass on many of them as well. This has a double effect of allowing the sun through to the soil and drying it out even more while it also means the players are falling onto the hard ground without the buffer of thick grass to lessen the impact. The RFL and the various League organisations should be helping with this in some shape or form but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Another issue for me is with the integrity of the competition itself with so many breaks and inconsistencies in the fixture list. I understand it must be a bit of a nightmare to navigate the school breaks etc and I dont envy the various fixture secretaries but I can't help but feel it could be better.

Ive said before and I reiterate again, the quality of the training and practices during summer with light nights is incomparable with that which took place during winter and that's THE major advantage of summer rugby.

TBH in the 12 years I have been involved in junior rugby, the only months kids haven't trained are 2nd half of July - end of August and then December to February, which is very little difference to what is happening now due to the summer break and the weather conditions we have suffered the last couple of winters, so your argument doesn't bear up.
Also when I coached junior teams, during the months of Nov/Dec/Jan & Feb we used to train an a Saturday morning (weather permitting) thus eliminating the "Dark evening" training sessions.
IMHO the junior season should start in Feb (same tame as SL and run to the 2nd week in July with only "official" breaks on the BH weekends (Easter,Whit,Mayday) this would give enough weekends to get all the fixtures completed, even cup, the only exception is BARLA cup, which traditionally runs Sept-Dec and YJARL and the clubs will have little or no influence in changing the timing of

We might have a crigg n Stanley alliance

Well that's not my experience mate, during the interim season we were training from 6:00pm on Tu & Thu and 80% of our sessions throughout the season were in darkness, the flood lights we had were only good from one side of the pitch with the other being in shadow. Training on Saturday might be OK every now and then but if you're playing on Sunday doing 1.5 hours training the day before isn't conducive to being at your best. The alternative is you train for a shorter period but then you're into compromising because of the light which is my point in the first place. That's not even taking the weather into account.

I'm not against switching back to winter but I recognise that doing so would mean a reduction in the quality of what we can do at training because of the light and the weather. That said there are some practices which are better suited to colder conditions and aren't affected by the light too much but for me they're outweighed by those skills which are better practiced in good, light conditions.

I agree some of the rugby as been better clan , but remember that mix up . start of season cold maybe rain going in poor windy weather . then break come back hardly ever a cancellation snowy maybe cold going into spring then summery weather.
Kids dealt with it all. Plus teams of different ability had their day.


I can't like many of us why we carnt manage with the holidays now. All of a sudden its OK to call a game off cos you have 2/3 of you're best players away on holiday in the winter it was a case of "so what, unlucky "

In winter you have school holidays in. October, (the winter break) , Easter , May day W/E , Witt's Holliday's .

Yet it worked plus it runs along the age grouping . we must stop this before the inevitable mistake will happen and a kid ends up playing in the wrong age group.

You've not read my post properly, the Saturday training was Dec/Jan/Feb therefore no games, during summer season you are training in Feb/March before clocks go forward, therefore under flood lights so in the winter season you are only training another 2 months under floodlights (oct/nov) so there is very little change IMO.

Sorry , you're right I didn't pick that up.

I actually don't mind most of the pre-season dark nights and cold, I think they can help forge a bit of toughness in the lads. We trained for 2 months in the snow on cannonball Hill prior to this season even in blizzard conditions.

The problem came when we should have been moving onto ball work but the state of the pitches available to us prevented us from doing so. As a consequence we went into the season super fit but under done in terms of tech, shape and structure.

I still think the training conditions in summer lend themselves to a far greater degree of development than the darker nights and shorter days of a winter season.

Surprised it never got mentioned before so congratulations to
Crigglestone under 13s in retaining the Wakefield Cup After a turbulent few weeks and losing the challenge cup the lads looked almost perfect on Wednesday.

Also well done to Normy Knights under 12s winning their first trophey .

Can not comment on the 14/s as I left at half time but the day was great and very well organised by all. Good to see Wakey players new and old there to present the medals .

Looking forward to the first games of the new term although it will be dumb that's been said already .
I am lucky enough to have another lad who may be or not in the top flight but hopefully they will show enough to get a spot.

He will also be playing school rugby .

Whereas the old head one of the war of roses winners goes into the hat for the national cup with 2 good wakey and 2 good cas teams showing yet again this district just floods talent as we also have another 4/5 teams .

And also div 1 schools the big boys of cas and outwood.

Its no wonder I pay less attention to wakey and more to kids