Stockholm conquered!

Our season has ended and what a way to end it!

The trip was superb, they had a ton of fun in the minibus and my car, and when arriving at our layover just outside Enköping, the lads had some time to spend with the Vänersborg youngsters. But as it was late when we arrived, it was short lived before dreamland was next on schedule. 

Up early in the morning and a quick breakfast and of to Stockholm!

Once in Stockholm, we got word that we'd be teaming up with Hammarby and Vänersborg! Our lads were absolutely thrilled with this news.

The other surprise was that we'd be playing 15 aside instead of the normal 12 aside. Meaning 8 man scrums instead of 5 man. So the forwards had a 1 hour training session to learn how to do that, where me and the forwards coach from Trojan helped fix and form it to as good as perfection can be achieved in 1 hour. While this was going on, our backs we're given a simple gameplan to stick to under the game.

When the first of three games then started, there was some confusion at the start as expected, but each of our players grew more and more into their roles as the games progressed.

There were a lot of things happening, so won't go into all of them here, but some of the more glorious moments to be lifted:

Ethan playing as scrumhalf (9) and doing an amazing job. Also being the shortest player on the pitch, he admitted that he was a bit nervous and scared in the morning, as he knew he'd be facing some really big U14 players (tallest being 185cm), but he made his mark by tackling them nonetheless. When he was subbed on the first time, I got asked by another coach, "What good is he going to be in defence?" and just a few seconds later, Ethan fell a giant of a lad, takling his leg and with a rumble the big lad fell face first onto the ground dropping the ball in the process. Just looked at him and said: "The next Faf de Klerk (Giantslayer) in the making?" :)

Felix finally finding his both arms in the tackles, suddenly making some amazing tackles. An improvement that wouldn't have happened without the tour! :)

Anthon and Henry working miracles the Scrums. Henry being prolly the best loosehead of the mixteam and Anthon really solidifying his position as the best second row of the mixed team, playing almost every minute of both games!

And not to forget Axel. Suddenly fearless, taking the ball into contact against lads twice his size, tackling these overgrown U14 players by chopping their legs. Amazing stuff!

The chat afterwards with the coaches where they lifted our guys performances and then being a bit stunned with the information that we haven't had a U14 coach all season and we haven't even been able to train more than a couple of times actual U14 gameplay.

So I'm super pleased about the lads performance, they really gave their hearts and bodies a 100% in Stockholm. And they themselves were happy, including Henry, who had a nasty head collision with mentioned biggest player on the pitch and got a nice bump in the middle of his forehead, becoming a Unicorn. But luckily no concussion.

They all talked about the games afterwards and what they saw and did. Great to hear. :)

The trip back, the guys were tired as all five U14 players fell asleep 30min after leaving Stockholm. 😁

With that said.

Stockholm conquered!

// Coach Jan-Joel