South Leicester Training Report 1.9.2013
Written by Owlie

This year we have some new rules to follow. They are now practically the same as the 15 aside ones apart from we are only allowed to push 1.5m in the scrum and NO HAND OFFS!!!!!!!! This year we are also allowed to kick. We have to be fit as well because we have bigger sized pitches.

Today we have been learning about the zit squeezers, Roman soldiers and the lovely strippers. OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We split ourselves into 3 groups of two 7s and an 8.We ran at the coaches who had tackle bags. We practiced the Roman Soldier first and had to worship the team that won. Then once we got the hang of it, we added in two zit squeezers and a stripper. The Roman Soldier is where you put your foot across the opponent’s body, clamp the ball to your hip and use your arm to push them back. Zit squeezers are where you take out the tackler and free the Roman soldier. Then it’s the stripper who stays behind and is ready to strip the ball from the Roman soldier or pass it out off the ground. After that we used what we had learnt in a match. Sometimes we did it well and sometimes we didn’t!

We did some stretching to cool down our muscles. All these stretches start and finish in the same position which is popping one leg out in front of you whilst sitting on the other leg like in a hurdle position on the floor, you then:
1. put your hands on your ankles and try and put your head on your knee;
2. put your hands on your bent leg and try and put your head on the ground beside you;
3. lie back so that the leg you are sitting on is stretched as far as it can be while the other leg is as straight as you can make it and then
4. repeat all of these on the other leg.

We played a full contact match using kicking, scrummaging and lineouts, but these last two were uncontested. Finally we helped collect in all the cones, took the kit back to the clubhouse and all went home!

Attendance was: players 22 (11 aside), coaches 5 (2.5 aside). Weather was sunny with a cool breeze and the ground was soft in some patches.