Dutch tourists entertained at GRFC (From News Shopper)

True spirit on mini and youth rugby

8:20am Tuesday 16th October 2012 in Sport By Mike Cubitt

Gravesend Rugby Club is always an enlightening and cheering place to be on a Sunday morning when the 250 or so Mini & Youth Rugby players from all over the borough and beyond take to the field for training and fixtures.

This week was made a little more special when a splash of international rugby came to Gravesham by way of mini and youth teams from Holland – The Pink Panthers.

On what was a perfect morning for rugby, the U12’s from Aylesford RFC joined Gravesend and The Pink Panthers to make a three way round robin.

Blackheath RFC’s U14’s embraced the spirit of the day and re-arranged what would have been a home fixture against Gravesend to come down and give the Pink Panthers a second U14’s fixture.

An excellent morning of rugby was enjoyed by all, followed by a post match lunch and celebrations with their visitors and whilst Gravesend came out on top in terms of scores overall, the real winner on the day was junior rugby.

Gary Theobald (mini and youth chairman) commented “Our mini and youth section goes from strength to strength and it’s testament to the commitment of our coaches and administration team that we are able to pull something out of the bag at such short notice and make a touring team so welcome”

The U14’s result against Blackheath was 12-7 in favour of Gravesend, with tries from Joshua Curnow and Thomas Wilkinson and one conversion by Matt Bruce.

Against the touring side, Pink Panthers, the game ended in another win for Gravesend with tries from Cameron Wilkins (2), Ben Kite (2), Josh Ring, Joe Jenken, Joshua Curnow.

Matt Bruce converted three tries to bring the result to a respectable 41-7 score line.

Gravesend U12s played both The Pink Panthers and Aylesford Bulls in a full mornings programme.

Gravesend lost very narrowly to Aylesord in the first match, Aylesford came out of the blocks quickly and scored three first half tries.

This meant Gravesend had to buck their ideas up and they played much better the second half before narrowly losing 5-4.

Aylesford Bulls played a less experienced side against Pink Panthers who took full advantage scoring five first half tries, Aylesford introduced some more experienced players and were on the comeback trail, but ran out of time losing to the tourists 6-4.

Gravesend then played the Pink Panthers and had put away the early gremlins and started well scoring three quick tries.

The Pink Panthers suffered a few injuries and the game went to uncontested scrums before the visitors began to succumb to tour fatigue and Gravesend ran in quite a few more tries.

The final game was between a mixture of Gravesend and Pink Panthers v Aylesford, and again Aylesford played a mixture of experience.

This last game showed the spirit of youth ruby as the three clubs joined to entertain the onlookers. Gravesend Panthers took an early lead and in a well contested game just came out on top.

Every Sunday morning from early September through to early May Gravesend RFC’s Mini and Youth Section provides coaching and fixtures for girls and boys from Under 6 through to Under 17.

If your child has an interest in playing rugby why not call down any Sunday morning between 10.30 and midday. Alternatively visit www.gravesendrfc.co.uk or email miniyouth.chair@gravesendrfc.co.uk for more information.