Sidmouth Under-7s entertained Honiton at Sidmouth.

It has been a feature of younger age group rugby this season that many clubs have been finding it difficult to fulfil fixtures in numbers.

Honiton were typical of this worrying trend as they only had seven players available whereas Sidmouth were positively loaded in strength – boasting no fewer than 28 youngsters champing at the bit for action!

This meant it was a busy encounter for Honiton with them playing four back-to-back games against fresh legged Sidmouth teams.

Alongside the Honiton versus Sidmouth contests there were mini matches between the Sidmouth players to ensure everyone saw plenty of action.

One hugely pleasing feature of the morning was the fact that so many young rugby players were involved and, with the feared rain holding off, there was much for a large turnout of supporting families and friends to enjoy.

The Sidmouth Under-7s have had a busy period with action every weekend for the past six week and there follows one last training session before a min-break to enjoy the festive season!

The ere was a high level of skill shown by both sets of players with some ferocious tagging and quick passing on display and this led to every game being closely – and keenly – contested.

With all the games played many players showed great steps of improvement and naturally at this early part of the season a few mistakes from both sides. The Sidmouth Player of the Day award was presented to Ted Woodman. The youngster has only been playing tag rugby for two months, but showed great determination, improvement in all areas of his game and a true rugby team spirit.

Sidmouth Under-7s coach Simon Dunstan said: “The results from the games played saw many of the games drawn and some very close scores. Overall a draw between both clubs was the final outcome of the fixture. It was certainly a great day for all involved with thanks to Honiton for being competitive visitors. With back to back home fixtures this month now ended, we look forwards to a simple training session next week and then our Christmas party for the junior teams.”