Today was the third week of our ‘Dads and Lads’ programme and it was great to see the dads back for more action! This week, Elliot from the Welsh Rugby Union came to put us all through our paces in an intense rugby training session. The Dads and Lads started with some warm ups and then moved onto some throwing and catching exercises. They had to work together to pass the ball back and forth without dropping it. The Dads and Lads were so good at that, that Elliot decided to make it more challenging! He introduced a number of different levels, whereby the Dads and Lads had to swap positions, turn around, move around, pass to a different partner… it became very complicated indeed! The Dads and Lads did an excellent job however, and got to a very high level! (They were all thrilled to get to a higher level than Elliot’s female rugby team!)

The session ended with a game where all the Dads and Lads (and Mrs Cooke and I) had to stand in a circle and pass the ball around in the direction Elliot called. For example, if he shouted “two to the left”, we would have to simultaneously throw the ball twice to the left. The coordination was all to much for some of the dads and lads (and Mrs Cooke) who ended up having to sit in the middle of the circle as they dropped their rugby balls. Finley was the last Lad standing in the circle – well done Fin! We eventually were down to the final three players – Elliot, Luke’s dad and me. Elliot did everything he could to try to catch us out, but we were too good! It was then that Mrs Cooke decided to take control to see if she could get us out. She started calling all sorts of commands and sadly, I lost and Luke’s dad won – I was definitely robbed of the victory! Nevertheless, Luke’s dad was very good!

All the Dads and Lads enjoyed the session and were all very tired by the end of it!

Thanks to all our excellent Dad’s and Lad’s who attended! See you next week!

You can see the highlights from the session here: