Page 7 - GRFC NEWS AUTUMN 2020

Gwernyfed RFC’s Ceri Morgan and Bronnie Jones are pivotal in developing rugby in Mid Wales...
RED KITES
07
WHEN WILL WE MEET AGAIN?
Following another successful festival at Trefecca Road and jaunts across the region throughout the summer, our 2019 Red Kites season ended with a presentation evening where Welsh International, Cerys Hale was our guest of honour. We also enjoyed an evening barbeque at The Malthouse sponsored by The Welsh Venison Centre. We were fortunate to receive some funding and playing equipment from Natwest RugbyForce.
Bronnie and myself attended several meetings with other regional hub leads and Shona Powell-Hughes, WRU Game Changer, to
waymark the 2020 playing season and the changes in store for girls and women’s rugby and to finalise plans for the season. The new Red Kites management team were busy getting ready to launch the 2020 season and flyers had been printed to go into schools etc when along came COVID-19, the coronavirus which stopped us and all other sports in our tracks. We have been keeping in touch using social media and look forward to Welsh and UK Government lifting of restrictions to allow sports and rugby in particular to begin training safely again.
In line with the WRU’s Return to Play strategy Peter Weavers is the Operations Manager and Operations Leads from the Red Kites will liaise
with Peter and the Hub Lead with regards training, rules and contact tracing should that be necessary. It is likely that the Red Kites have lost out in terms of any training, playing and festivals for 2020, but we will let everyone know as soon as it is deemed safe for us to reconvene with socially distanced training evenings and start planning for hosting our 2021 season and festival of girls rugby which is sure to be a bumper one! In the meantime, stay safe.
Ceri Morgan
Hub Lead
Ladies Captain Bronnie Jones looks forward to a new season...
LADIES SECTION
LOOKING FORWARD TO A NEW START
The ladies section were just coming back in to their stride, following a long Christmas break, before the season was abruptly brought to a standstill thanks to COVID-19. The ladies had continued to train throughout their break, using Gwernyfed High School during the bad weather, to keep the team together and prepare for the upcoming plate run.
In the first round of the plate the ladies faced Llantwit Fardre, a strong upcoming team who had spent the majority of their season undefeated. A tough first game saw the ladies team flourish and put in to practice all their hard work from the winter break, sealing a 24-13 win on the road and moving on to the second round of the cup.
The second round brought on another new opponent, Morriston Ladies RFC. An outstanding performance from the whole squad lead to a 97-0 win for the ladies on the road. It was great to have the team back to winning ways with all the new members of the team constantly continuing to develop and the whole squad enjoying being back on the pitch.
Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus pandemic the plate run came to an abrupt halt but that hasn’t stopped the Ladies section continue to stick together off the pitch. The team have been taking full advantage of lockdown technology, doing numerous Zoom quizzes and workouts as well as putting together a social distancing rugby video to show our support for all of our key workers.
The ladies section are very much looking forward to the start of lockdown restrictions being lifted so some form of training can resume and the squad can get back together! We are all extremely grateful for all of the hard work key workers and the NHS have put in throughout the pandemic and are extremely proud of our very own players that have been continuing to work hard.
Bronnie Jones
Ladies Captain
AUTUMN 2020