Wee Reds Micros Tournament

Sunday 24 March 2024

Well, what a day we had for the Wee Reds Micros Tournament! After a week of torrential downpours and wild winds, the sun came out in full glory and shone all morning for 120 micros from Linlithgow, Livingston, East Kilbride and Stirling. Almost half were our own Wee Reds – an exciting prospect for the future of our club. We unfortunately cannot show everyone from the day but undoubtedly these smiling faces will be gracing this newsletter in years to come.

I’d like to say a special thanks to the coaches for running such positive and enthusiastic games and giving the kids such a great experience; as well as a shout out to all the volunteers who gave up their time in various ways and contributed to the day.

We had so many P1s and P2s that we split them into 3 separate teams and they all took turns playing the other teams as well as each other. We practiced our “W”s for catching and did lots (and lots) of running around. The coaches were there guiding, supporting, moving the players with fair amount of corralling as standard for this age group.  All the skills honed from weekly sharks & fishes, dodgeball and our other games really shone through and we were delighted to see the progress of all players, and it really starting to click with many of them. Some were a bit nervous, some were more competitive, but all showcased their rugby values of respect & being team players and did it with a big smile on their face.  We couldn’t ask for more than that. Check out these pictures…

The Wee Reds P3s took things just a little more seriously- these guys are raring to go to Minis next season and they were out for the win.

We played 5 or 6 pass and coaches were on pitch to coach and support players on the rules but as far as possible, the aim was keep the play flowing with players moving forwards and the passes going backwards. Some of the kids took a few knocks but their grit and determination was evident and nobody was down for long. We had some spectacular runs, fancy footwork, tries aplenty and lots of back-slapping. Again the rugby values were on display , everyone lined up to bump elbows with the opposition after every game and what was particularly evident to me was the way the team supported each other and self-organised, starting their own drills between games and calling their positions. They all did the club proud and will be a team to watch next season. They were mostly too speedy to catch in action and for some reason were collectively looking at an invisible photographer but check out these winners…