TOMASZ CHADWICK: Sixth-formers' help crucial to school competition

Over the winter months all of our secondary schools were taking part in fixtures against one another to see who would be representing the Scarborough area.

As well as this being a great opportunity to promote rugby within schools, these tournaments have also offered invaluable experience to some of Scarborough Sixth Form’s pro-active sports students.

In previous seasons Jordan Wakeham, Drew Govier and Will Leah have all volunteered to referee, and now we have other students such as Jack Ireland, Morgan Grunwell, Max Evans and Connor Pollard all offering to help in its organisation. There have also been other volunteers throughout these fixtures and every single one has been invaluable to them going ahead.

Both Scarborough RUFC and all our local schools owe them a lot of gratitude for their unwavering support. Sport can’t happen without facilitators.

Behind the scenes there are always people organising and managing so that matches or training can go ahead and rugby is no different to this.

Introducing our youth to this aspect of sport means that they can get active in sport without having to always take part.

This is key to the development of the Active Youth Scheme and our partnership with McCain in the future.

It is important for us to attempt to engage more of our youth in every capacity possible, provided it helps their development and offers them an opportunity to lead a healthier lifestyle.

At Scarborough RUFC we’re very proud to offer opportunities to so many of the youth in this area and we’ll continue to do so indefinitely.

On Sunday our under-13s took on a strong side from Pocklington, and had there not been one or two absences from the side, I’m sure they could have come away with the win.

Our under-14s and 15s were also unlucky to lose out against a touring side from Tamworth.

Very wet and cold conditions meant seamless back play was hard to come by, but Sam Jackson certainly stood out as a fantastic player on the day, with his considerable work-rate and effort in defence.

Sunday also saw our under-16s side put in a very professional performance away at Guisborough, winning 70-7.

Euan Govier stole the show with an extremely physical display, proving to be a problem for the home side throughout the match.

While our junior sides were all taking part in matches, our minis section (under-sixes to under-12s) were playing away at Bridlington in an tournament there.

There are certainly encouraging signs that our minis sides are becoming more competitive every week with most sides now winning the majority of their games.

Scarborough Sixth Form Academy will also be travelling to Bridlington this week.

They travel to take on East Riding College in the latest round of their college competition.

Unfortunately the side will be without instrumental captain Drew Govier, who picked up a short-term injury last weekend.

This Sunday our minis will all be training at home, whilst the majority of our junior sides will be taking a break from fixtures.