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The Mini Pitmen were again in action for two days this weekend.

On Saturday, they attended the second of the Rhymney Valley U11’s District trials. Once again, each and every one of the Mini Pitmen put in a fantastic performance, doing the club and themselves proud. Every player has been invited to attend the district training sessions, with the teams being selected by Thursday this week. Good luck to everyone involved!

On Sunday, we faced the familiar faces of Bargoed Rfc U11’s. Last season, the Mini Pitmen faced Bargoed on 4 occasions, earning one win, but suffering 3 close defeats. Due to the younger age groups hosting their annual tournament (and they did a fantastic job as well!), the coaching team decided to book the Centre of Sporting Excellence pitch, just up the road. The players from both teams had the full match day experience, preparing in the changing rooms, warm-up, pre-match talk and then were welcomed onto the pitch by both sets of parents, who were acting as a guard of honour! You could see the players chests puff out proudly as they walked onto the pitch. Thank you to the parents of both teams for your fantastic support!

We were expecting a really close encounter. As it turned out, the Mini Pitmen put in an exceptional performance. They were strong at the breakdown, not only securing our own ball, but stealing the opposition ball on many occasions. They kept Bargoeds’ big ball carriers quiet and they also ran in some fantastic tries. After the first 20 minutes, the Mini Pitmen were 30-0 up. By the end of the second half it was 45-10. A fantastic performance and result!

It was decided that the teams would play an extra 15 minutes to make sure everyone had plenty of game time. The Mini Pitmen had a change around, trying players in different and unfamiliar positions. In the final 15 minutes Bargoed outscored the Mini Pitmen 4 tries to 1, although to be fair to the Mini Pitmen, we were experimenting a little and the Bargoed tries were once again by their big runners. So the final score not telling the full story of the Mini Pitmens dominance of the game.

Final score Penallta 50-30 Bargoed

Overall, the performance by the Mini Pitmen was exceptional, so a huge well done from all the coaches!

Our Player of the Week this week is Morgan Bell. Morgan has been in some fantastic form of late, where his tackling, jackling and ball carrying have all been immense. Well done Morgan and well done to the rest of the team!

Try scorers: Cai Wardman (4), Bailey Selway (2), Cameron Foreman (2), Morgan Bell (1), Kaide Paget (1)

Next week: Our U11’s Festival of Rugby!