22/09/2009
U16 State Representative Team v Harlequins
SA Rugby welcomed the Under 16 Harlequins Rugby team from Victoria for the weekend of the 19/20 Sept. Harlequins were rewarding a team that had just won the Grand Final in Melbourne the previous weekend, and also a retention program aimed at encouraging as many players as possible to return the following year for Under 18's.
This tour gave the SA State U16 team very valuable game time before heading over to Sydney for the U16 Nationals for the week of 4th - 9th October. This is something many of our state teams have not been able to get prior to tournaments and we greatly appreciated the chance to test players under pressure, work on game plans, and look at positional selections.
Our first game was on Saturday Morning was played at Brighton, the SA State team played a very impressive first half, showing very good team structure, communication which resulted in a good number of trys being run in. The second half saw the Harlequins come back with an inspired come back, and really tested the SA defensive patterns, and showed that we needed some work on our game going when we are going backwards. Harlequins held SA scoreless in the second half, but SA did enough to run our winners on the day.
Then both teams and supporters spent the rest of the day at the SA Grand Final Day, and I know they all had a great day, and were very positive about the whole event.
Sunday saw us again at it, at AA Bailey Reserve, and a pleasing result for SA U16, showing the team work, commitment from Saturday was developed further. The boys improved another 15 - 20%, and worked to a game plan that saw them hold the Harlequins scoreless as SA run in a good number of tries.
This weekend could not have happened without the support of the players families who took 21 billets for the three nights, and then provided both teams and supporters with a full on Lunch on Sunday.
The coaches and management got a huge amount out of these two games, and now will be setting the team sights high for a very successful week at the U16's National Championships.
Thanks again to the Harlequins U16 in making this weekend of Rugby a very enjoyable experience for all involved.