Congratulations to those teams who have progressed through to the NLD U14-U16 Semi Finals which are to be played on 15th March 2020
Below you will find the list of teams in the semi finals and the first team drawn is the home team.
U14
Cup
Newark v Kesteven
Paviors v Stamford
Shield
Spalding v Melbourne
Southwell v Scunthorpe
U15
Cup
Notts Corsairs v Scunthorpe
Spalding v Newark
Shield
Keyworth v Ashbourne
Mansfield v Ilkeston
U16
Cup
Derby v West Bridgford
Newark v Mansfield
Shield
Chesterfield V Market Rasen
Kesteven v Sleaford
With the continuing uncertainty on the weather front and pitch conditions remaining questionable, we have decided to move the next U17s Training Session once more to the YMCA facility in Newark.
Unsurprisingly, the 3G pitches are experiencing high demand and we have limited availability.
Details are as follows for the session:
YMCA Sports Ground
Lord Hawke Way
off Bowbridge Road
Newark
NG24 4FH
Registration – from 19:30
Training – 20:00 – 21:30
As usual, any player who is injured or unable to attend is asked to notify the Squad Manager (Lee Slack) as soon as possible.
Sunday 23rd February, played at Leicester Forest RFC
Well due to the floods and incessant rain over February a small part of Leicestershire was claimed by NLD for our “Home” fixture. Our hosts for the day could not be faulted from organising changing rooms to the food and hospitality post match. And to quote the Club what a great game of rugby.
Watching the video of the match back I was amazed at how much time passed before the first score by Leics, the game ebbed and flowed from end to end and some amazing tackles were put in by both sides. Leics broke the deadlock with a their forwards pealing off a ruck only to be stopped first time, but quick ball saw their second effort take them over almost under the posts making the conversion easy for their kicker. Not to be outdone NLD tore into Leics from the restart and almost scored but knocked close to the line. From the resulting scrum Leics passed the ball down their backs instead of kicking clear and NLD pounced on a loose pass kicking through for our 12 to score an unconverted try. With nothing left of the half NLD gave a penalty away in midfield and quick thinking from Leics saw they run the ball and with some great handling and interplay between forwards and backs scored out wide on the right hand side. Conversion missed saw the half-time score at 5-12
The second half saw no change in the way the game was played with both sides playing good attacking rugby and defensively showing why they represent their Counties. NLD finally got back into the game with a penalty kicked to corner, and from a scrappy line out the NLD 8 somehow got through the resulting ruck and scored, but conversion missed from out wide. 10-12
The game seemed destined to end in a tight loss for NLD, but the NLD 4 pinched a Leics line out and this seemed to rejuvenate the NLD pack, retaining the ball NLD worked their way up field and our No 3 picked a tight line taking the ball off our 9 and breaking deep in the Leics half, a penalty at the breakdown saw NLD kick for the corner, but unable to gather clean ball for a catch and drive the ball was spun into midfield and Leics were caught off side in front of the posts. With great captaincy the decision was taken on the field to go for posts and our 21 stepped up with the clock ticking down and slotted over. The final whistle went and against all odds NLD came away with a hard fought victory.
This brings the NLD U16s program to a close not just for this season but for the future as Leicester Tigers take over the program from next year. On behalf of the coaches a big thank you to all the players involved and the parents for all those evenings driving to training at Scunthorpe who kindly let us use their training ground.
Its been a wonderful season with NLD winning all three of their fixtures, something not done for while.
As arranged the Challenge Shield Finals will take place at Chesterfield RUFC on Saturady 14th March
Juniors KO 1pm
Mellish RFC 2nds V East Retford RUFC 2nds
Seniors KO 3pm
Derby RFC 2nds V Lincoln RFC 2nds
The following has been received from the Rugby Football Union.
There have been a number of queries about whether we are putting out any information for clubs on the Coronavirus.
As a Union we will not be giving advice or guidance as the latest information is available via the Government website and is updated daily. It is important that clubs use the government’s guidance to inform their knowledge, available here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public?gclid=CjwKCAiAvonyBRB7EiwAadauqeYJ2mMvVaQkTC9HPUsOyQlxnV0e-1avnXWHM41AduzME9tzdXCk3xoCDlwQAvD_BwE
As tour season is approaching we advise clubs to monitor via the Government website the situation at their overseas proposed tour destination . The link is as below
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice
The following information may also be helpful for clubs.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
It is up to individual clubs to decide internally if or how or what they communicate to their members.
NLD u17s announcement
Due to the adverse weather and water logged pitch conditions THERE WILL BE NO u17S training session on Monday 17th February at Newark RFC.
The next session will be on Monday 24th February, subject to pitch inspection and improved weather.
The U17s Trials were held at the University of Nottingham on Sunday afternoon and some 51 players were put through their paces by the NLD Coaching Team assisted by Dave Andrews, Head of Game Development.
After the session’s conclusion, the Coaching & Management Team met with the difficult task of selecting those players who will go through to the next stage.
Following this announcement, dates will be posted giving the dates for the forthcoming training and selection sessions together with the dates for two warm up games for the Squad. Following those games, further reduction in squad numbers will probably take place in preparation for the coming campaign, which will commence in October this year.
Those players selected to progress are as follows:
GEORGE BACON
ROBERT CARMICHAEL
JAMES CLARKE-KELLAWAY
SAM CLEGG
HARRY CLOUGH
JOSH CORMACK
CHARLIE DAVIES
THOMAS DAVIES
GEORGE DOUGHTY
DANIEL FLINT
IWAN HUTCHINGS
GEORGE HOTCHEN
WILLIAM KIBBLE
EUAN OWEN
BEN POYSER
BENJAMIN ROSS
ZAK SKAYMAN
DANIEL STOKES
CHARLIE TALLIS
CHARLIE TASKER
TOBY TEASDALE
CHRISTIAN ULEBEGOR
JONNIE WALSGROVE
RYAN WEBB
DAN WHERRITT
TOM WIGGLESWORTH
ADAM WILKINSON
This group of players will be supplemented by selected players identified from the current NLD U16s Squad together with those existing players who represented NLD as U17s in the Midlands campaign this season as part of the U18s Squad.
Training and match dates will be posted here as soon as they are available.
Lee Slack