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12/09/2026 Week 3: Tough Training

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Week 3: soft turf, but tough stuff!

Shaws Bridge was just damp enough this morning to remind everyone that mini rugby is, technically, an outdoor winter sport.

Fortunately, energy levels remained firmly at 100%, with great movement, handling and general enthusiasm across every age group. Three sessions in and there is already plenty of progress showing, along with the beginnings of the traditional season-long relationship with mud.

Next Saturday we welcome two of our near neighbours, Instonians Seahorses and Belfast Harlequins, for our first blitz of the year.

Local bragging rights may be entirely irrelevant at mini rugby level. But putting on a good show, being there for your teammates and turning effort into fun games definitely front of mind.

See you at Shaws Bridge next week! 🏉

Teammates of the week below:

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P7 Team mate of the Week is Joshua!

A stand out display in training today. In the first few weeks he has shown huge improvements in his passing, support play and tackling.

Keep it up Joshua!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P6 TMOTW was Ben.

Really stepped up this week with his tackling making some big hits on our biggest players.

Well done Ben. 💪🏼💪🏼

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P5 TMOTW is Zac.

Fought through an injury to make some strong tackles and passes into space.

Well done!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Brilliant session from Nicholas today, our P4 TMoTW.

Absolutely excellent running, straightening up and bursting forward, with some great newly acquired tackling skills on show too.

Brill Nicholas, keep it up! 🏉👏

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Another great week for P3 getting into playing touch rugby. Fantastic passing, running, scoring and some hero touches.

TMoTW this week was Daniel! Daniel has put in an awesome effort this season so far and showed excellent teamwork and leadership qualities 🏆

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P1/P2 TMOTW was Harris. Great listening skills and showed super skills!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

The P6s and P7s also enjoyed a trip to the Ulster v Ospreys game on Friday night and had an absolute ball.

Big thanks to Paul for organising for the P7s and Frosty for sorting the P6s 👏

Pictures below!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

05/09/2026 Week 2: Blue Skies and Building Skills

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

🏉 Back Into the Swing of It 🏉

Another excellent Saturday morning at Shaw’s Bridge, and week two already had the reassuring look of everyone remembering vaguely what they are supposed to be doing.

One of the great things about watching all the groups together is just how much changes between P1 and P7. At one end there is plenty of running around, learning to pass and discovering the general concept of teamwork. At the other, the game becomes progressively more recognisable as rugby, with more technique, decision-making and laws to get your head around.

For our P4s in particular, this was a big week as they began learning one of the major new skills at that age: tackling. Introduced carefully, with plenty of emphasis on technique and safety, they made a cracking start.

Across the pitches there was lots of learning, plenty of effort and, most importantly, a lot of kids enjoying themselves.

Which is broadly the plan!

Next week more training at Shaw’s Bridge ahead of our first home blitz of the season the following week, a chance to put some of that training into practice.

Teammates of the Week and all the news from the groups below 👇

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P1/P2. TMOTW was noah, he took a knock and came straight back in to play the next game. 👍

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Fantastic second week for P3 with some great skills work and getting stuck in with the touch rugby 🏉

TMotW this week was … 🥁… Rowan! Rowan displayed super listening skills and awesome teamwork 💪🏼

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Big step up for the P4s this week as we got properly stuck into learning how to tackle 🏉

Lots to take in, getting low, good body position, head safely to the side, wrapping up and driving with the legs, but the whole group made great progress and, most importantly, threw themselves into it.

TMoTW was **Edan** 👏 Great listening, great effort and really starting to put the pieces together.

Plenty more reps to come, but a very good start to the contact journey! 💪

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P5 TMoTW is Cathal. Bringing the power to his tackles and great ball placement to get ready for rucking! Super work.

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Another great session for the P7s! We have been getting the reps in with the basics of passing and tackling and also focused on learning the new P7 laws and applying them in game situations!
Roll on next week! 🏉

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

29/09/2026 NEW SEASON AHOY!!!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

First day back and straight back into it. 🏉

Plenty of smiles, plenty of rugby and just enough running to remind everyone that improved fitness may take another week or two…

Great to see so many faces back at Shaws Bridge and some new ones too. If you haven’t already new joiner parents, get yourselves on the relevant WhatsApp groups.

We go again Saturday 5 September — and new players are always very welcome – tell your friends!!!

A couple of Teammates of the week and photos below, but if the other Coaches are anything like me, we were a little focussed on dusting off the cobwebs and remembering which way up to hold the ball to get all photos and designations in place. Normal service to resume next week, but well done to the Coaches who are more on the ball, see below…

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P1/P2. Great fist week back, lots of new face, same amount of energy and enthusiasm! TMOTW was Luke, first ever week and he was involved and keen from the start.

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P3 had a great first session back, straight into getting those rugby skills sharp. Nice to see a couple of new faces. 


TMotW for P3 was James who can back after the summer break bursting with energy and getting stuck in. Listening skills on point 👌🏼🏅🏆

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Great first session back for P4 this morning and a first taste of contact for the boys, which was understandably met with plenty of excitement!
Everyone did really well. Lots to learn, but if we keep listening, build the technique properly and look after each other, we will get this one going nicely.
Most importantly, a fun first morning back. Great to see everyone again. No TMoTW this one… full team award for effort!!!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

P5 had a great first session back, lots of running , tackling and smiles.

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Thanks everyone for a great P6 session today. Great to get stuck back into training again. JJ took a knock during the game and is away to get checked out at hospital jyst now so we wish him a speedy recovery. 💪🏼 he really appreciated all the boys coming up to him and asking if he way ok. Such a special group. it took 5 boys to tackle JJ just before he got the knock. And for that strength and determination it’s only fair he gets Team Mate of the Week ❤️ thanks everyone and have a great weekend. 💪🏼👍💪🏼

New Season Approaching!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

Cooke Mini rugby is the best!!!

Hi all,

We hope you’re looking forward to another exciting season! I would like to extend a warm welcome to new parents and children, and I hope you enjoy your time at Cooke Mini-Rugby Club.

To our existing parents and players, I hope you enjoyed the summer break and are looking forward to pulling on the jersey again in a few weeks. We’ve planned a busy schedule of coaching, home & away fixtures, festivals and social events, which will provide some great sport and laughs along the way.

The coaching team, our Mini-Makers and I are looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday 29th August at 9.30am for our 1st Home Coaching session. There will be two further coaching sessions before we have a home blitz with Instonians and Quins. Alongside more coaching days we have 2 further home games and 4 away fixtures before the Christmas break.

We will have a Christmas party for the boys and girls after the coaching session on the 12th of December – more details on this will follow nearer the time.

Cooke Mini rugby is the best!!!

Coaches

All of our coaches give up their time voluntarily and we expect all our parents to respect the significant commitment they make to ensure Cooke Mini-Rugby is a welcome and fostering environment.

We are supported by Ulster Rugby / IRFU to ensure all our volunteer coaches obtain an Access NI Enhanced Disclosure Certificate and undergo safeguarding training.

If you are interested in joining the coaching team, please speak to myself or one of the current age-group coaches – the more coaches we have the better!

Cooke Mini rugby is the best!!!

Mini-Makers

We are lucky to have a small but enthusiastic group of parents who help myself and the coaching team with directing new parents and children at the start of the season, hosting pre-loved kit exchanges and helping with car-parking, marshalling and hot-dog supply (!) at our home fixtures. If any existing or new parents want to help, then please do get in touch.

Cooke Mini rugby is the best!!!

Registration / Fees

Please register via Klubfunder A prompt registration by all members allows us to move time away from admin and focus on coaching. 

We appreciate this time of year is expensive with bills for new school uniforms / shoes, other activities / clubs and in general prices are continuing to increase across the board.

As such, we’ve frozen our fees from last season. Also, if the one-off up-front fee is a challenge, then please get in touch and we can facilitate a phased payment via standing order if required.

One of the things we as a club pride ourselves on is making rugby available and welcoming to everyone, so please do not let payment be a barrier.

All Mini-Rugby players must be registered with the IRFU. This is free. Rugby Connect (IRFU).

Cooke Mini rugby is the best!!!

Pre-Loved Gear Exchange

Our Mini-Makers hold a Pre-Loved Gear Exchange (kit and boots) at the start of the season – this is good for both our members’ pocket and indeed the environment.

  • Please bring any pre-loved kit (please have it washed!) on Saturday 29th August (during coaching session) to the drop-off station for sorting. 
  • Pre-Loved Kit Collections will then operate on Saturday 5th & 12th September during the coaching session.

We can operate the exchange after Christmas is there is sufficient interest – please let one of your age group coaches know.

Cooke Mini rugby is the best!!!

New Member Recruitment

We are keen to welcome new players (boys and girls) across all age groups. Ireland legends Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell were 11 and 10 respectively when they played their first match so parents should not be concerned about their kids starting slightly later – it did them no harm! 

A soft-copy version of our advertising flyer has been included in the start of season communication messages on WhatsApp. Please share with friends, family and especially those school / class WhatsApp Groups!

Please also like and share our recent posts on social media.  Your advocacy would be much appreciated!

Cooke Mini rugby is the best!!!

wordpress-1668196-6656218.cloudwaysapps.com

Instagram – cookeminirugby

Thanks for now – I will keep in touch with further updates throughout the season.

Nick Cooper

Cooke Mini Rugby Club Convenor

07841 054624

Cooke Mini rugby is the best!!!

02/05/2026 END OF SEASON PARTY!!!

Cooke Mini Rugby is the best!!!

🎉 End of Season – Sports Day & Season Wrap 🎉

What a way to finish. A brilliant morning on the hockey pitch with energy, colour and plenty of smiles – exactly what it should be about. The sports day format worked a treat, with all groups rotating through the stations and throwing themselves into it. The medal presentations topped it off nicely, and the hot dogs probably went down just as well.

Sports day was a fitting end to what has been an excellent season across all age groups. Week in, week out the standard of coaching, organisation and enthusiasm has been outstanding, and that is what makes it work.

A few highlights worth calling out:

  • The continued development across all groups, with clear progress in both skills and confidence.
  • Strong performances at the blitz days, with great effort and positive, respectful attitude against other clubs.
  • The P1/P2 group – never easy, always energetic, and handled brilliantly by the coaching team.
  • Strong engagement right across P3–P7, with great attendance and energy each week
  • Resilience in all weathers – turning up, getting on with it, and making the most of every session.
  • Consistency and commitment from players and coaches alike, right through to the final session.

Most important of all, thank you to the parents, mini-makers and coaches – the time, effort and care you bring each week does not go unnoticed. And a special mention to Chris Scott for leading the programme this season and keeping everything moving – a huge contribution.

There is a strong platform in place heading into next season. More to follow on plans over the summer, but for now it is a well-earned break.

 

Photos below!

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And finally, a personal note from me: thank you to everyone who sent through updates, photos and snippets. It made putting the posts together genuinely enjoyable, and far easier to capture the spirit of each session and match. I have had great fun writing them up (and stretching the limits of a few puns along the way), a brilliant way to stay close to what is happening across all groups. Please keep them coming next year.

Over and out for this season 👏