The Chair of Governance has sent the following note -
This morning David Dove drove me to visit Sherborne RFC.
Their U16s were playing Bridport U16s. We had not announced our
visit. Sherborne Chairman, Mike Trew, was there and we were able to chat about days gone
by and modern developments.
The crowd was small but well behaved, exhorting their teams,
but it was all bonhomie. I had feared the worst; and it struck me that we are receiving all the bad reports, not realising that lots of good clubs are doing good
things.
The game was well
balanced – Sherborne winning 17 – 10 or thereabouts. But it was refereed by the Sherborne
coach – surely there would be criticism from the
Bridport coaching team and their touch-line supporters. Not a peep: shouts of
encouragement but no abuse.
Dave and I were
delighted by the situation. The pace was frenetic, the tackling awesome, the
scrums passable, the line-outs need
practice and the passing - interesting.
At the end, the two
teams were good-humoured, congratulating each other: their coaches gathered
their broods after the final whistle and talked to them
and even ran through play at breakdowns.
We talked to the
Coaches and congratulated them on the game and overall
behaviour. They seemed quite
surprised that we should be there and thanked us for our ‘feedback’. It was heartening.
