The most important thing, is to play as a team...

I found myself trotting out all these encouraging, confidence boosting, esteem building nuggets today.  It was the Northumberland RFU Under 7's County Cup today, and Sam was very nervous.  I told him:


that nervousness is good, it get's your adrenalin pumping


it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's the taking part


for a team to win, it needs all the players to play as a team, to support each other


it's supposed to be fun


rugby is a team sport, the try is scored by one person, but he can only score it with the help of everyone else


if you don't keep practicing, you won't get any better


yes, it's dissapointing not to win, but it's not the end of the world


losing feels horrible, but it shouldn't stop you from going back out and trying again, or you will never know what winning feels like


don't give up


you've not even played a full season yet, you can't expect to be an expert yet


most importantly - RUN FORWARDS and PASS BACK!!!


So, his team, the Percy Park Penguins (they are the B team, the A team are called the Pirates... the names are an indication of respective rugby playing ability!!) got knocked out and to say my little lad was disapointed, is somewhat of an understatement!!  Devastated, gutted and miserable as hell is probably closer to the mark.  He really does not lose well and approval and praise from those in authority (in this case, the coaches - mums and dads praise is not sufficient) is very important to him. 


Ah well, at least the sun is shining.  Sam has cheered up and the boys are playing out with some of the neighbouring kids, roll on Summer!!