U12s is often a huge turning point for youth rugby, and it is reported that up and down the country, squads can be reduced by up to 20%. With the players starting secondary school all grass level sports move to a Sunday to enable school sports to flourish.

For our U12s it put eight of our young superstars in an uncomfortable and unwanted position of having to choose between their football club and their rugby club which for the first time for this group created a clash, for a whopping 25% of our squad.

Testament to the team as whole at U11, having had a superb season on the pitch in both friendly matches, festivals and on the annual tour, and the club as a whole always striving to create a fun and family friendly environment with various events off the pitch, the boys opted for their Rugby Club.

In recognition of a display of such loyalty to their club and teammates and to ensure the boys did not have any feeling of missing out, Coach John took the initiative with the backing of the club to set up an historic U12 EIRFC football team, to play mid-week friendly matches. Enfield Ignatians are proud of our motto in that we are “The Club That Cares” and in line with that, we fully support our players wherever we can.

Upon contacting some local football teams who relished the opportunity to prove that “egg chasers” cant play football and local rugby clubs who thought the initiative was genius to engage their own players, a schedule was quickly in place.

With an additional four players from the age group that expressed an interest in the team, a squad of twelve was formed and to date the boys have drawn their maiden game against Chase Side Youth 4-4 and last night (Thursday 22nd Sept) were victors in a 4-2 match with our neighbours and friends at Enfield Town FC.

To top of a wonderful display a parent from the opposition commented “These boys are too good to be chucking a ball around". In training you will often find our players engaging in various sports such as football, netball, Gaelic Football, rounders and many more that collectively all benefit our core skills for rugby. Embracing all sports benefits our players development and enjoyment, and most importantly puts us on the pathway to creating talented young rugby players.

As it turns out “Egg Chasers” are pretty good with that oddly shaped round ball.

Squad: Adam, Archie, Caiden, Callum, Fenton, Jack, Jake, Mathew, Oliver, Ollie, River, William