Mini & Youth Mid Term Report

The Mini and Youth part of the Club includes over 200 girls and boys, from 4 years right though until the Colts, or U18s for the girls. We’ve had a busy start to the season, which always kicks off with ‘kickstart’ festivals held in September/October. These festivals really showcase Underly Park and give the kids a chance to play teams from further afield and help give them some match experience early in the season. Thanks to Gareth Gore for organising them. We’ve had a typical Cumbrian winter, but this hasn’t put off large numbers of kids (and parents) turning out every Sunday morning to support the Club.

The Under 7s are loving playing matches. We only have a small group but they all love playing together and hearing them shout each other’s names and pass pass is so great! They try so hard, and the coaches are so proud of them all!

The Under 8s have a great turn out every week. Over 20 most weeks. Enthusiastic and talented group of young players. Coaches love coaching them.

This season our Under 9s squad has grown in size and we regularly have 15-18 players. Everyone is very much enjoying tackling and contact and it’s great to see them gain confidence on the field and to see them growing as a team. We are very lucky to have plenty of parents who help to coach and offer support and encouragement.

The Under 10s have really enjoyed learning rucking and mauling for the first time this year. They have hosted teams from as far away as Bristol and it is great to see the individual strengths of all the players really coming into their own as the game develops.

The Under 11s are really enjoying this season. They are a great team, and everyone has a place on the pitch. Learning the new u11s rules and really enjoying scrumming and rucking along with being able to do kicks. We’ve got numbers up to 14 on weeks now.

The Under 12s have had a great start to the season welcoming new players and old into training sessions designed to improve their rugby played with passing and speed as its core values. We are not blessed with an abundance of big forward type rugby players, so we have been working hard on passing, speed and space to our advantage. This passing game has been commented on be opposition coaches as they have been surprised and complimentary with some of the excellent ball handling we display, regularly able to move the ball around the field to create the space we need to play. We are improving our rucking skills and discissions around this area weekly and making good progress with the mechanics of the scrum. Great games against Carlisle, Fylde and Penrith have yielded some fantastic rugby, smiling faces, positive comments from parents and coaches all played in the true Kirkby Lonsdale Spirit.

The Under 13 boys have started pretty strong despite only playing 4 matches and struggling for numbers at the beginning of season.
Numbers have grown with new players and the future’s looking bright. Some great displays and effort have resulted in promising wins. They are looking forward to playing local rivals Kendal this weekend before heading into the new year.

The Under 14s are a fantastic bunch of young men who have bonded over the last few seasons and have developed into a tight team. With new players joining us this year, they have been welcomed and joined the team like they’ve been with us for years.
This season, the players have taken on the new tackle laws and the introduction of line outs in their stride, and it is showing in our performances, as we have yet to be beaten this year and have played some great running rugby. All the players embraced our running open style of rugby, and they are enjoying their rugby journey together. Our next challenge is Sunday where we play St Benedict’s in the Cumbria Cup semi-finals.
All the coaches and parents are very proud of our team, and we wish all the players the best in the Cup and the rest of the season.
The future of rugby is looking exciting and vibrant.

Our Under 15s are enjoying a successful season so far. Despite fixtures and training being affected by snow and rain, they continue to be undefeated with wins against Fylde, Keswick, Penrith and Vale of Lune. The outstanding result so far has been their away win in the County Cup against current champions St Benedicts.

Girls Rugby at KLRUFC has continued to grow on the back of their success from the inaugural season of Tri County Tigers.
As a concept, it's the best way our girls can learn and play Rugby in the region, and we now have 73 Girls registered across the 5 clubs and 4 ages grades (girls play dual age band).
Under 12s is a difficult year with many Cumbrian clubs struggling with numbers. The Tigers hosted the first festival at Kendal where 30 Girls came together to train and play a match on their first team pitch.
The Under 14s have had a mixed season of success and disappointment. They've bounced back recently, and their last matches (at a festival in Scotland) show how Stoic they are winning 3 and drawing 1 of their 7 games against some strong Scottish clubs.
The Under 16s are the strongest team in terms of numbers but struggled to play as a team at the start of the year. Again, these girls dug deep and beat the "prominent" club in Cumbria (Penrith) convincingly recently.
The Under 18s have struggled to find opposition due to many u18s teams folding this year. They had to take themselves North of the Boarder to beat a team made up of the best girls in the local Scottish clubs.
They're also made up the majority of the County squad and recently have been building bridges with Sedbergh to take on the mighty Penrith and their strong team built on the back of 8 CoE and 1 North player... losing 10:17.

The Tigers are shining the light in the North as a team overcoming adversity and our KLRUFC girls are forming the backbone of the Tigers through all age groups. Our girls are leading the way with Jess (u18s) and Isla(u16s) captaining their squads.

We have mixed teams to U11, boys’ teams to Colts and girls’ teams up to U18. If you know any children who are interested in giving rugby a try, just get in touch with minis@klrufc.co.uk for more information.