Bangor and Oswestry were contacted about the U14 tournament but neither had a full team so were invited to attend with all their girls, whatever age.
On the day they turned up with a few U14 girls each, who combined to play in the U14 tournament, while all the U17 girls joined together for a joint training session.
Geoff Taylor, Director of Girls Rugby at Colwyn Bay RFC, held a training session with the forwards – the first time many of them had used a scrummaging machine – and all the girls agreed that the session had been very useful.
U17 Mermaids Coach Louis Tilakawardane then combined all U17 girls, Mermaids, Bangor and Oswestry, and held a training session/ fun match with the girls, with Jess Rhodes, formerly an U17 Mermaid, assisting with coaching. All the girls had great fun and showed during a question and answering session at the end of practice that they had benefited from the session.
Some of the girls were inexperienced in rugby and admitted that they were very nervous about playing with more experienced players from other teams, but at the end of the session they were much more confident and everybody had made new friends and learned new skills.
All the coaches agreed that we should all get together when we can to enable girls rugby to continue to grow in North Wales.
