U13 minxes friendly fun on full sized pitch.

Despite a rainy morning in Melbourne , the U13's travelled North to our friends at Mansfield for a relatively dry afternoon in the sun. Slightly down on numbers due to a couple of lucky girls managing to get to Twickenham , the 10 minxes were soon warmed up and ready for action.
Pete at Mansfield chatted to the coaches and it was agreed that we would mix everyone together and played lots of conditioned games, so the girls could improve known skills and learn new skills.

The first hurdle to get to grips with was a full sized pitch but the girls were quickly passing the ball through the hands from one wing to the other with great accuracy and speed. Another condition was making the girls go to ground at certain points on the field, which in turn allowed for a ruck to be formed. This allowed girls to work on the good body position at the ruck and in some cases they were able to counter ruck and win the ball.
After a while the girls all broke off and split into groups and worked together with Mansfield & Melbourne coaches on an 8 man uncontested lineout, this is a new skill and allowed the year 8 girls the opportunity to practise throwing and catching in a safe controlled environment. This was then put into the next conditioned game and the girls were not phased by it. Finally, splitting off again the girls experienced an 8 man scrum (without pushing) and learnt all about a good body position. This was then put into play in the final conditioned game.

Thanks to Pete and the coaching team at Mansfield for a great collaborative morning allowing all the girls to mix together while learning and having fun.