The under 9’s age group introduces the squad members to contact based rugby for the first time.

The key focus for this age group is building on the foundations taught over the past two seasons where many of the skills learnt such as passing, dodging, handling, running and defending will be reinforced, but also introducing the youngsters to the contact skills of tackling, rucking, mauling, scrums and lineouts, in addition to the positional aspects of forwards and backs play.

This is all done in a progressive, safe manner. Scrums and lineouts are 3 - a – side and are uncontested, and the games played are 9 a side with 3 forwards and 6 backs.

We train on a Sunday morning from 10.00am to approximately 12.00 noon, usually at the club. Training usually comprises of a good warm up, sometimes some fitness work, an hour or so of training followed by inter - squad matches. This is an opportunity for all squad members to use the skills they have learnt in a competitive situation.

We also play competitive games against other teams from Hampshire and the surrounding counties and we play matches both home and away. We also take part in a few tournaments across the season, which are great days out for the players and parents alike.

The current Under 9 squad is a small squad that has had a lot of success at tag rugby. We won the Petersfield tournament at U7 and U8 age groups. We were runners up in the Newbury festival when they were Under 7’s and we were runners up in the county tournament last year. We have also made a good start to contact rugby reaching the semi finals of the recent tournament at Supermarine in October 2007.

We always welcome new members and would love a few more! We are happy for your child to come along and give rugby a try. There are players currently playing in this age group from many local schools and it is likely that if they are in Year 4 at school they will already know someone at the club.

If you are interested in coming along, or have any questions, give Alison Read a ring on the contact number below and we will look out for you at the next training session.