With lineouts now in play; the last key element of the adult game is in place.

Get in touch with the manager and coach: email U14@wmrfc.co.uk

U14 Coach, Jonathan Kinnear, 07767 776852
U14 Manager, Mary White, 07785 314113

The key rules are...

• Team numbers: a maximum of 15-a-side
• Maximum pitch size: 100 metres x 70 metres
• Ball Size: 4
• Maximum minutes each half: 25
• Contested 8 man scrum – the No.8 can pick up the ball from the back of the scrum
• Introduction of the uncontested lineout
• Sin Bin: 5 minutes

Click here for the age group rules of play (effective from 1 August 2019)

The Invincible U13s

Wimbledon U13s started their season on the back of a mixed 2016 and with a new coach at the helm in club favourite, David Kremer. Unsurprisingly, expectations were tempered but nobody could have predicted what a wonderful season it would turn out to be.

Larger pitches and specialisation in positions means that youth (and adult) rugby has arrived.

Get in touch with the manager and coach: email U13@wmrfc.co.uk

U13 Coach, David Kremer, 07802 243119
U13 Manager, Rachel van Willingh, 07946 519040

The key rules are...

• Team numbers: a maximum of 13-a-side
• Maximum pitch size: 90 metres x 60 metres
• Ball Size: 4
• Maximum minutes each half: 25
• 6 players in a fully contested scrum (all players must be confident and competent)
• No limit on numbers contesting for the ball including in the maul and ruck
• Sin Bin: 5 minutes

Click here for the age group rules of play (effective from 1 August 2016)

With many away for Half-term we were struggling for players as were many of the other teams so this festival really centred on how we would manage to contain the sprinkling of better players that turned up for the festival.

WIMBLEDON 3 GUILDFORDIANS 1
A comfortable win but governed by a our A/B player scores. Charlie scored x2 with an early injection of speed followed by a trot to the line, and Stuart caught the wingers knapping with a clean break from half-way. Unfortunately the ball never got out much to the wingers but our defence was sound; especially with Noah’s crunching tackles, Evan prowling in the second half and Henry on the ball at Prop. We finished with a trip to our winning white gate to celebrate…. like we did in the B fest!

WIMBLEDON 1 REEDS 1
Charlie scored with a round the corner try and both he and Stu should have others but found some touch lines and then last play and then another last play, and then an infringement and then Evan ran the ball into touch which was declared illegal in mini rugby and then they scored! V disappointing to draw in that way to the eventual group winners. Marcus got a bit of ball and Amery had his first run in a festival. Ollie H was looking comfortable as Prop…think we will keep him there!

WIMBLEDON 4 TEDDINGTON 4
Cracking game and it went something like this. Teddington scored first, 0-1, 1-1 Charlie waltzed over after some great team off loads starting from Seb, Stu try..but disallowed, Charlie caught on the touch line at speed and then they scored to make it 1-2 to them at half-time. Evan got us right back in it at the beginning of the second half by charging up the middle 2-2 but then they got another 3-2. Stu made it 3-3 with a run around the side then they got another 3:4 and in the last minute we got a free pass and Stu took it across the pitch and then back again to score 4:4. Still we had time to win it but Teddington chased us down. A good game to draw but we were in the Plate final as runners up to Reeds.

PLATE FINAL: WIMBLEDON 0 FARNHAM 5
The usual 50min delay at Cobham between the last game and our final was greeted with despondence by coaches and parents …need to take a lesson from us at Wimbledon on that one. Our festival finished by 1:15!

Farnham had some of their A players in the team which was clear from the outset as the big guy shrugged off some tackles and we were 0:2 down in no time despite crunching tackles from Noah, and Lucas playing at Fly half and getting some ball..at last. Owen was chasing hard and looking fitter than ever! By HT we were 0:3 down and Evan and Henry were injured and off and Stu was groogy. There were some bashed up bodies around and a few tears but with our final 9 on the pitch but we played better in the second half and in particular Seb showed off that jinking run of his from Half way only to be felled by a chasing mob just short of the line.

Player of the festival: Noah for his tackling
Most improved player: Ollie H

Lessons to remember: Support the player with the ball. Don’t enter rucks from the side (Ollie H!), Markus, Amery our wingers on the day… are forwards!

Most devastating moment: Alastair…..having scratched the car bumper hauling the ton-weight marquee out of the car and then wheeling the monster across 400meters of cark park and then 400meters of bumpy pitch, to then be told that he had forgotten to pack the weights and side wings! Will revert to our old marquee in future but if anyone wants to have a party in their garden the new one is there for the taking but WRFC accept no responsibility for ant resultant back pain.

Wimbledon make the final but miss out on the Cup

Wimbledon 4:2 Old Ruts
Ruts were quite a tall team but with one particularly solid tank. However, we hit the ground running and were 2:0 to the good at half time with Ethan doing the business as usual. Ruts started to gather momentum and it gave our boys the chance to show how much they love tackling! Philippe, as always led the way, Ethan got stuck in and then Brian not wanting to be left out decided to get in on the act. Despite these efforts, Ruts used their tank to rumble over our line to make it 2-1. Moments later, however, Charlie stormed down the wing after we disrupted their attack near our line and sped over the rapidly worsening surface to score in the corner. We started to almost look comfortable playing keep ball and even ventured to pass the ball occasionally! Ethan then finished things off with his hat-trick and we were home. Ollie Hinton came on for his Wimbledon debut at hooker and a victorious start to his Wimbledon rugby career. Our best display performance of rugby this season!

Wimbledon 1:1 Guildfordians
After playing with speed, pace and confidence, we suddenly found ourselves 1:0 down. We pulled one back early in the second half with Ethan charging over and looked like we were going to take it with Sam sprinting down the line only to place a foot on the line before dotting down. Tackling by the trio above plus Bakr and Edward piling in meant we managed to win ball back quite quickly from the mauls although the team seemed to think rucking was an invitation only event and they'd clearly not received theirs! That said, the stats showed we had 70% of possession but we were unable to find the winning try. We maintained white-line fever to the end with Philippe attempting a pick-up and dive but was adjudged "held up" and we were unable to convert our pressure into points.

Wimbledon 3:2 Reeds
We had beaten this team two weeks ago so going in 1:1 at HT made us feel a bit nervous. However, by now we were all up for the challenges. Matheus played with his usual intelligence and kept the backs in line. Seb was at fly half and desperate for the ball in the backs. It duly arrived after Bakr ripped it out of a maul and passed it out. It was shipped out to Charlie who skated over from 10m out to score. By now we were confident and playing with real gusto and no-one wanted to come off. Its the hardest job to have to substitute players and give all the kids a go and to try to maintain strength and balance in the side. Thank you to all the boys for their great attitude in this area. One more score by the irrepressible Ethan and we duly turned the score to 3:1. They then inched towards our line and on the last play they were awarded a try.

We made the FINAL as we were winners of our group

Wimbledon 1: 4 Weybridge Vandals
The Wimbledon coaches had not done their homework on this team. They had a big guy and most of them could tackle hence no tries conceded in their 3 previous games. By HT their big guy had wrestled over for 2 tries largely due to some limited commitment in the tackle.
They got another set up by their big guy and then he got another. Big guys need marking by the best tacklers and we did not do that. We need to get that tackle wheel out!
We were now looking tired from our previous efforts and our heads dropped as we trudged back to the line but Ethan stormed off from the free pass to give us the consolation that we were the only team to score against them.

Special mentions
Bakr: Some strong work in the scrums and mauls, and much improved ball retention by turning earlier in the tackle. At least one of my messages to each player got through.
Ethan: Got out of bed for it thankfully! Great tackling and try scoring.
Ollie H: Debut in a B festival final. Many of our players have been waiting 3 years for that….. .and that is a measure of where this team has come to this season!

We have had a great Autumn festival series and only lost to two teams
Won 6 KCS/Chobham/Reeds x2/Tonbridge/Old Ruts
Drawn 2 Esher/Guildfordians
Lost 3 Cobham x2/Weybridge Vandals

All the best, Alastair, Paddy and Luciana

This festival marked a turning point for many of our young squad. We have never seen this level of commitment and intensity before...obviously testosterone is kicking in! A plate final 1:1 score at half time turned into a 3:1 win against a much bigger Tonbridge side. We won this in a fury of wild dog madness! In fact I am not sure whether we are sad to lose our lovely innocent touch players or pleased that they have turned on such a determined performance. I suppose that is the journey, as parents we all go through. Still I am so pleased our players shook the refs hand. That's the great thing about rugby... Hard play and great sportsmanship... the players are a tribute to our club as well as you.

We won the plate and even the eventual final winners (Cobham) might have been struggling to live with us.

Reports of each game below.

Wimbledon 0 Cobham 2
First game... we knew this was tough as Cobham RFC had won at our place last week. Unfortunately we let in two tries in the first half and despite having most of the possession and some determined runs from Matheus in the second half we failed to score.

Wimbledon 3 Chobham RFC 1
We were 1:1 at half-time with Ethan and Stu combining well down the wing and then a bit of space for Charlie saw him burning down the wing 2:1, and Ethan got another to add to his first at half-time and we were worthy winners

Wimbledon 2 Reeds 1
The pack (Bakr, Raj and Toby) was on great form for this game but despite a lot of possession we did not play that well. Luckily Toby stormed up the middle to score the first, Brian should have had a second but was denied the penalty try or even a penalty for a blatant push. So it was left up to Ethan again to give us the winning try.

Two wins took us to the Plate final and after hanging around for an hour in the sun kissed Cobham grounds we were off.

Wimbledon 3 Tonbridge 1
Tonbridge had given Cobham a hard game so we thought this might be difficult. But our team were up for it, really up for it, monstrously up for it! We really had that winning attitude. The first half was a furious pace and I think I recall this right Ethan scored first then they got one back so it was 1:1 at HT. It was so hot Ramaging Raj and Bulldozer Bakr pleaded for a rest so Edward the destroyer and Roaring Rasmus stepped into the scrum. Tonbridge were at us big time at the beginning of the second half but Brian's boxing competitive genes come out and this infected the team especially Philippe who was always first up in the tackle, the result was that we won the mauls and rucks this larger, more powerful team should have won. Anyway we had the ball but on our try line and Ethan rode a tackle and he was down the length of the pitch to make it 2:1! A minute later and Stu was on one of his snaky long runs and it was 3:1...cruising no..we did not let up till the final whistle. We had won some silverware!

Still a lot of technique to improve on but we have that winning attitude now.

We have only lost to one team this season who have won both tournaments. We are in a good place. Rosslyn Park B fest on 20 October. Third time lucky v Cobham and then Ross Park?!

Ethan was Wimbledon's player of the tournament and Noah... what a first festival after only 3 weeks of rugby...tackling was great (no penalties for offside even better!)

Wimbledon vs Old Reigatians
OR had just been beaten 3-0 by Kings A and were looking for a chance to redeem themselves. It was interesting to hear Old Reigations referring to their Thursday night positions/drills!

OR kicked off and ran straight into a tackle from George, which was then ripped out by Tom. A good start. However, we kept losing the ball by running into contact ball first, and then being slower to ruck over than the opposition. We were on the backfoot for long periods, which gave us a chance to put the tackling practice into action. Wave after wave of OR attack were thwarted by tackles across the pitch from everyone, particularly George,Ollie and Harry. From our tackling we won a scrum, but OR turned it over by driving us off the ball, the ball came out and OR broke away for a TRY.

From the restart, our centres of Freddie and Ethan drove up the middle, but OR we're strong in defence and we didn't manage to get the ball out wide. OR turned it over and were running straight and offloading in the tackle. Otto made a break down the wing, but was adjudged just into touch for an OR line out, which they knocked on. Wimbledon lost the ensuing scrum, driven off the ball. We defended well again with tackles from Freddie, Ollie, Tom, Nick, Lucas, George, Casper, Otto and Ethan! However, after a high tackle from Wimbledon, OR broke away and scored a TRY just before half time. Half time: OR 2-0 Wimbledon.

After a few half time changes, and some words of encouragement about the positives i.e tackling, OR kicked off and ran straight through Wimbledon's missed tackles and scored an easy TRY!

The rest of the half was much tighter, with some great rucking and tacking by Andrew in particular. Edward surged down the middle, supported by Andrew's rucking. We won and retained a scrum, but we continued to run straight into the OR defence, and losing the ball before we passed it out wide. OR broke down the wing, looking certain to score, but Freddie J managed to grab a handful of shirt and we won the ball back. The other Freddie (big) made another crunching run through the middle, but was smothered out by OR. After Wimbledon were penalised for being offside, our concentration lapsed, we didn't close the gap between the offensive and defensive lines and let OR run straight at us...TRY OR.

From the restart, the ball came out to Casper who darted for the line, but was hit by a few OR defenders... Casper was injured and the final whistle blew. Full time: OR 4-0 Wimbledon.

Unfortunately, Casper's injury to his ankle was serious and had to head off to casualty to get it checked out. So not only were we down one of our best players, but also without a head coach and ref!

At this point all responsibility fell on the poor dad, who signed up two weeks ago to help out a bit on a Sunday....Me! Match reports weren't top of the priority list, as you'll see!

Wimbledon v KCS A

Kings graciously gave us 5 mins to scramble a plan and team sheet together, as we were straight on after the last match and loss of player and coach.

We started understandably disorganised and Kings ran straight through 3 missed tackled and scored, TRY. We Continued to try and muscle our way through the middle, but Kings were solid and we were turned over, and on the back foot regularly. TRY to Kings. There were a couple of highlights in terms of runs from Andrew and Lucas, but the first half finished 2-0. We were a bit more organised in the second half, but much of the same i.e GREAT defence, but the ball rarely left the hands of the forwards and centres! Final score Full time: KCS 4-0 Wimbledon.

We had a 30 minute break, so we managed to get more organised. To everyone's relief, Stef also joined us from the younger age groups and took charge of the set pieces.

Wimbledon v Brighton
As Stef put it, "these are a bunch of big units, so we need to hit them low"!

It was a pretty even match, and Brighton got the first score. However, we were faster than them and finally broke through for a big Freddie TRY! Full time: Final score 1-1.

Wimbledon Wimbledon Warriors
This is a match we should have won. We had better players, but positionally we were literally all over the place. (at times we had 6 centres!) a good breakaway from Ollie, who offloaded to big Freddie (I think?) for our only TRY. Full time: Final score 1-1.

As I gave out the medals, a nice touch from the boys as I held out one for Casper, a ramble of applause and best wishes for their teammate.

Overall, we improved as we went on, and tackling was good again. Areas to improve would be: POSITIONS and organisation (knowing where they should be at set pieces, mauls, rucks etc.), committing player and PASSING, RUCKING (we missed Evan today) and SCRUM (we were driven off the ball almost every game today).

Festival Report from Cobham

Despite losing out to a count back decision in the final of the bowl, there were a lot of positives from the Cobham festival. However, passing continues to be the key area of improvement, just ask the frustrated wingers!

Cobham 3 Wimbledon 0
The first match was against the home team, Cobham. However, with 5 minutes to kick off we only had 5 players, some going to CHOBHAM instead...! Despite the cold start, we were playing well with a good few runs through the middle by big Freddie, supported by Lucas, Ollie, Ethan and Tom. Cobham turned it over, ran it up the middle and PASSED out to the left, but found George waiting with a big tackle, which was then ripped out by Wimbledon(Evan I think) and onto big Freddie for another charging run down the middle. Evan then rucked superbly to set up Freddie again, but we were held up again. Cobham then started to get the upper hand, but some great tackling (much better than last season) kept them at bay. Cobham recycled the ball well, but the half ended with a joint tackle by George and Freddie. 0-0 at half time. After a few substitutions, we got back underway. The second half started well with some great interplay between Casper, Yanni, Freddie J and Edward. Then Cobham were running, offloading and PASSING at pace, and we missed a couple of tackles which led to a Cobham try
down the wing. Then followed a good burst from Casper and strong tackles from Edward and Evan. Otto almost got through down the wing, but the we lost the subsequent line out and Cobham scored another try down the wing. We had a few more bursts down the middle, but Cobham were strong in defence. Despite some great tackles from all, Cobham scored another and the full time score was 3-0.

Wimbledon 1 Farnham 1
Farnham kicked off and were greeted with a great first tackle by big Freddie, which was then ripped out and fed back to Casper for a run down the wing, but just got knocked into touch. We had Farnham backed into a corner, but we lost the line out and Farnham ran the length of the pitch for a breakaway try. Tom and Casper combined well with a PASSING move, Evan recycled well (again) and set up big Freddie for a try. George and Ethan then combined for a double tackle on Farnham, with Ethan winning the ball but getting injured too. Otto made a good pick and go move, but half time was called. The start of the second half saw excellent Wimbledon defence. Tackles from Ollie and Evan led to a turnover to Wimbledon, this led a PASS from Evan to Casper and eventually a scrum just 5m out. Lucas drove the scrum but Farnham stole the ball back; despite another Ollie tackle we missed two more and Farnham had a penalty. Farnham were attacking again, but were slowed by Ollie and then Freddie J put in a match saving tackle, knocking the opposing player into touch. Yanni and Evan combined with some passing, but the match ended a draw.

Wimbledon 0 Reeds 2
The last pool match was against Reeds and a few positions were changed around. We started well with a drive from Ollie, supported by George. Tom drove forward and offloaded well in the tackle, but Reeds were standing firm. George managed to rip the ball out, and Lucas, Ollie and Freddie drove the maul onwards and to a penalty in our favour. We went up the middle again with Edward charging through and offloading well, but eventually we were smothered out by Reeds. They turned it over and ran straight threw us with a couple of missed tackles leading to a try to Reeds. Despite a great run by Evan and Ollie, half time finished 1-0 to Reeds.

After the restart Lucas and Freddie J combined well early on, but Reeds tackled well and won a line out. Reeds secured the line out and skipped through two missed tackles for their second try. After the restart Yanni made some good central runs, but Reeds were solid in the middle. Evan was rucking and tackling constantly and held off any further score. Otto and Ethan were screaming for the ball on the wings throughout...

Wimbledon came third in our group stage (as Farnham lost 5-0 to Reeds) so we were though the the bowl final.

Wimbledon 1 Warlingham 1
We reverted back to the positions we had against Farnham. We made a fantastic start and were dominating the match. Otto shot down the wing, but was held back by a high tackle. We unfortunately knocked on from the restart, but after another big Freddie tackle we won it back and Casper was off on a snaking run, he passed to Otto but as he offloaded, the ball went forward. Warlingham passed it out wide and were tackled by Otto on the their right and then by George on the other wing. From the ensuing penalty, big Freddie charged down the pitch and scored! 1-1 at half time. Warlingham started the second half strongly, and against the run of play scored a try early on. It was pretty even now with both teams keeping the ball in a 5m channel down the centre of the pitch, despite calls from both Freddie J and Yanni to get the ball out wide. The central enforcers of: Tom, Edward, Lucas, Ollie and Ethan were taking it in turns of driving, tackling, rucking and mauling. Freddie and Evan made some central runs and the ball came out to Casper who sprinted the length of the pitch and just as he was about to plant the ball for a try, he was tackled from behind and the ball went forward. Evan managed to rip the ball back a few seconds later, but we were out of time. Very unfortunately, the boys lost out to a count back decision, as Warlingham won one of their group games. Ollie won player the day for his tackling and driving runs.

Overall, the tackling and position awareness was much improved, and the boys were unlucky not to have won something. There were no backward/sideways runs, so we made good penetration up the middle. However, we need to learn to pass/offload better and bring the whole team into play.

Festival Report from Wimbledon

Entering fortress Barham Road we felt parking was going to he the first hurdle of the day but the efficiency of the U11 squad on car park duty for the B fest could not be questioned (next year it's our turn!) and I dutifully parked my 12yr old MPV next to the gleaming white 13plate BMW x5 . Obviously our visitors were dressed to impress! However I was confident our new bullet proof marquee would show them up and sure enough I looked down from the clubhouse patio to see a line of cranes hoisting the 60 kg monoliths into their foundations. We dutifully entered ours dumped our bags and then stood proudly outside our all black marquee waiting for someone to say 'what a beautiful tent you have' or something like that. Sadly no one did. In fact no one knew who we were other than some Camberley and Esher players who play in black! I feel a U10 tent graffiti session coming on. That will get us recognised, in fact that would be a great children's game while we our having our Sunday lunch on Sunday 13th.,,, as the kids will no doubt gobble it down in 10 s!

Clearly our new Irish groundsman, come first team scrum half had been hard at work as well. Unfortunately he must have been using the Irish metric ruler when devising our x2 rugby pitches which looked remarkable like 43m across rather than the required 35m and included the bonus of a yellow line along the middle of the pitch as well as a half way line and was finished off with some sticks placed at the corner of each in goal area only. Anyway after a bit of rejigging we were off and ready to play or so we thought, but Wimbledon Warriors, who were due to play in our group cried off so we only had 3 games in our league and some unfortunate hanging around. But that at least that gave us time to practice our plays.

Wimbledon 5 - KCS 1
Our first match started with an enthusiastic call of "Elephant" and the ball was promptly passed to someone else. Despite this slight mis-communication Wimbledon managed to gather themselves and drive forwards. After several energy sapping tussles between large groups of players from both sides Ethan D emerged with the ball and ran through the middle brushing aside would-be tacklers and touching down to score. We were up and running. Wimbledon almost immediately won the ball back after some brave tackling by Philippe and driving by Nick and Bakr through the middle. The boys were running straight (mostly) taking contact and even passing!

Ethan took advantage of this new found spirit of teamwork and latched onto a break by Toby and finished off to score. At this point Kings fought back to run through some tackles and score a try of their own After a series of rucks and mauls the ball was ripped out by Will H, moved on to Seb who passed on in the tackle to Stuart. His arcing run put him just out of the reach of the Kings players and he ran in to score in the corner. We led 3-1 at half-time but needed to make the match safe.

After good approach work Stuart popped up a pass just before the line for Ethan to score his hatrick. Then Sam scored after great support and a line-hugging charge for the line. The match was a great confidence boost and totally rid us of any pre-festival nerves.

Wimbledon 3 - Esher 3
We knew this was going to be the crunch match of our group and we needed to make a good start. Unfortunately things didn't go quite to plan and we found ourselves 3-0 down at half-time. But our spirit was not to be crushed and we began an immediate fight-back with Ethan touching down after a bullocking run from the half-way line straight through the middle. Suddenly Wimbledon were in the ascendancy and Esher on the ropes. There was some great tackling and foraging by our forwards and keeping the ball alive in the backs. and then Charlie put on the afterburners and sped past some flailing arms to touch down.We still needed to score one more so the coach decided we needed to replace a dazed Ethan with Stuart who straight away got the ball and faced with a wall of black shirts ran right then switched back and then ran around the outside of their team and then inside again to score - fantastic! 3 all and the final whistle went - what a comeback.

Wimbledon 1 - Cobham 2 (the eventual joint winners)
This was the biggest team in the festival and for the first five minutes only a desperate rear-guard action prevented Cobham scoring more than once. Philippe was still tackling enthusiastically and now Ethan was launching himself at the oppo bringing down three attackers in textbook style. The whole team galvanised and started to rumble forward but the ref liked to stop the game frequently and give a little lecture every time. These breaks didn't de-rail our momentum and after a half-break by Louis the ball found its way to Ethan who drove and drove and drove for the line and put us level. Cobham came back and managed to score on the outside after good continuity and in the dying seconds we thought Charlie had clinched us a place in the playoffs when he ran through to score but the ref had blown, quietly, for a Cobham knock on and called play back. He then blew for time and we'd been defeated by the narrowest of margins! The players were gutted but didn't complain (too loudly anyway) and went off for a well deserved burger.

Overall, we still need to improve on the set pieces, our line outs were shaky, we were too easily pushed off the ball in the scrum. In the loose we tended to stand back and watch the ball rather than grab it in the tackle area but our teamwork, passing, tackling and commitment were a joy to see. Well played everyone and a big thank you to the u12 for organising the festival.

Cheers, Paddy and Alastair