U17s: Why two teams for the Sevens?

This is a reply to everyone that has asked...

First, all in all there are about 14 of you in the U17s who turn up reasonably regularly. Now, in most games our aim is to give as many of you as much rugby as possible. Strangley enough I put participation above the actual result - to coin a phrase, its not about the winning its about the taking part.

But the Sevens is not a friendly game that everyone will have forgotten about tomorrow. Its a Big Thing. And we want to do as well as possible. So we want to field the strongest side we can. If the team is winning, we want to keep that winning team on.

And to compound the problem in a sevens tournament there is only room on the field for seven players at any one time ("gosh, no!" I hear you cry). Each team will only play about four games in the competition, so if we had only one team we'd have a choice of either...

• Not playing some of you at all, or
• Fielding a radically different team in each match, thus causing confusion, losing any momentum we may have had, and so on. We tried it at Youth Games 2004. A team containing Ruby, Hayley, Katie, and Nichola finished last. End of lesson.

Now, I don't want any of you missing out on the 14th so the only way around it is two teams. And, as Saracens will be bringing some U17s with them, we will definitely have just about enough for two squads - Letchworth (whatever) and Letchworth Saracens. Note that if you are in the latter team you'll still be playing in Letchworth colours and will be expected to perform accordingly. Also, if anyone is injured, one team could feed the other. The rules will permit this - I know 'cause I'm writing them!

And finally" Letchworth Saracens" gives us 12 teams. You try to structure a tournament with 11 teams in it...!