Lots of Rugby Games at EF Sportability

Last Saturday's session was all about the sport of Rugby with a number of drills to practice and hone skills. We then progressed through a number of rugby themed games until we ended up with some Tag Rugby games.
The session started as always with a warm up led by Ray, Ollie and Ciara. It was then out with the new plastic rugby balls and practicing simple passing and catching in a large ring in the hall. From there it was on to working in pairs - throwing and catching - and then on to running around a slalom course of cones with ball in hand. 
There then followed a couple of Rugby favourites in the form of games of Hunter and Dragons Den. I always get these games confused but I think  Dragon's Den is where a Dragon is guarding their nest of eggs (rugby balls) from would be thieves. The balls are placed in a ring and the Dragon faces away from the ring. The player then has to approach the ring and wait for the coach to yell GO. At this point the player must steal a ball and get back to their base at the other end of the hall without getting caught by a Dragon. The Dragon cant move until the GO signal is called but must then try a grab a tag off the rival players belt before they get back to their base with the ball. We had two games running in parallel so it was fast and furious fun.

After a short drinks break, and with the weather improving, we went outside to play a game that was a version of bulldog with rugby balls! Basically, the kids lined up at one end of the playground with a rugby ball each and a tag belt with two tags on it. In the middle of the pitch were three leaders - Ray, Ciara and Ollie. On the word Go the kids had to get to the other end of the pitch and touch their ball down without being tagged. This was then repeated back down the pitch. If a member had been tagged twice and had both tags removed then they switched sides to help the leaders catch the others. The winner being the last person standing with a life (tag) in tact.

After all that running about the kids fully deserved their main break which gave them a chance to sit down, relax, chat as well as grab a drink and snack.
For the last part of the session Ciara took the younger boys down to the ball pool where they had loads of fun playing. Joseph loves it so much that he asks to go to the ball pool from the moment he arrives and we have to use it as a reward if he takes part in the events beforehand!
The rest of the gang were back out on to the playground with Alan, Ollie and Ray to play a proper game of tag rugby. This is like normal rugby except that if an opponent grabs one of your tags while you have the ball then you have to turn the ball over to the opposing team. This therefore encourages teamwork and passing to move the ball up the pitch without getting caught in possession.

The star of the week award was presented at the end of the session, as always, to the member the coaches thought did the best throughout the session. This week the decided that the award should go to young Liam for all his efforts in the Rugby, especially in the early part of the session. Well done Liam!

We do hope you are enjoying your half term break and that you hopefully get a chance to relax and recharge the batteries!

We are back on Saturday 9th June at the usual starting time of 10am so we hope to see as many of you as possible then.

Our Star this week was Liam - pictured here with Ciara