ON A cold and wet Sunday morning on November 2, the Old Pens U7's trekked to the Rumney ground for their first game against this club. After establishing that the pitch was holding a lot of water, the U7's prepared for what turned out to be a fairly loose game due to the conditions.

The Orange Team, led by James Siberry, took on Rumney A for their initial encounter which resulted in a convincing 7 - 3 win for the Old Pens. James's men played a straightforward game to enable the result to be delivered, with notable performances by Harri Glover and George Bennett as well as their captain.

The following game against Rumney B was a less straightforward affair, with a 7-5 win being wrenched from Rumney at the last play of the game. After thorough post match analysis, it was evident that Team Orange won the game through committed turnover ball, these stolen opportunities enabled the Old Pens to achieve a level of possession over and above their quota, and then convert this to points on the board.

Lewys Tollerfield and Harry Hopkins supplied a sterling performance in defence, while Alphie Gore again illustrated the benefit of solid support play.

Team Green's first game against Rumney B turned out to be a testing encounter against talented opposition. The Old Pens walked away with a draw at 8 - 8 thanks to a last minute touchdown by Isaac Clawson, which indicates a robust attacking line, but a less durable defence.

Captain Gruffy Pemberton-Jones managed to instil the importance of a fundamental tagging game to his line up prior to the second Team Green match against Rumney A, which was then reflected in the deserved result of an 8 - 3 win for his team. Edo Abramovich and Luke Shallis provided good all round skills today in both attack and defence play.

It was evident today that the U7s game is developing, with turnovers in possession become more and more evident against the opposition. That said all players walked away from the games aware of the importance of the tagging element over-riding all other aspects.

Then on Sunday, November 16, Old Pens U7's were travelling to Llanishen for a game rearranged following the previous weeks cancellation.

At Llanishen's request it was agreed to play eight a side (instead of five) on a small pitch, which although increased the amount of match time per player, this did not benefit the Old Pens favoured 'open' style of play. Due to the fact that the Old Pens only had three coaches present with one unable to do much apart from keep the scores due to losing his voice, there was no option than to play one match at a time against the single Llanishen team, also taking into account the home team could not provide a referee.

The Orange Team started, captained by William Reypert. It was evident that the Old Pens were struggling to break through the density of players present in opposition, with the game eventually finishing up 3 - 3.

Otis Colderly's Green Team managed to open the game up to produce another draw, but at 7 - 7. In the last game where the Green and Orange Team both played a half each against the home side, a well deserved 8 - 6 win was achieved.

All players put in commendable performances today, with the team playing as a unit. The captains of the respective teams led by example, with William crossing the line for Team Orange while Otis narrowly missed a winning touchdown for Team Green due to PC refereeing rather than any real infringement.