Convincing wins for the 1st and 2nd XV and the U11 B team against Barnardiston Hall on Saturday were most impressive but sadly the U11 A side were beaten by a team who wanted it more on the day.
The external season drew to a close on Wednesday with all five senior teams and the U11 A and B team taking on local rivals New Hall in what promised to be a competitive fixture. In the end there were easy victories for the 2nd XV, the U11 A and U11 B sides. These were slightly overshadowed, however, by losses for the 1st XV (their first this season), the 3rd, 4th and 5th XV.
League matches are reaching the final stages this week and tomorrow all the Year 7 and 8 boys are participating in the annual ‘Rugby Awards Ceremony’ where some silly and serious awards are given - this usually proves to be a great event and a brilliant way to finish the season.
May we take this opportunity on behalf of all the boys to thank all the staff for their hard work, dedication and enthusiasm as well as saying thank you to our brilliant parents who have always been there for us on the touchline.
1st XV Won 53 - 3
Such a score line suggests this was an easy victory and, in truth, it was. For the first time this season we played 12 a side and the extra space we should have found without a back row was negated by a small pitch. We managed only 3 tries in a rather short first half but our opponents desire to kick for goal revealed their ambition to score points any way they could. In the second half we began to string the phases together and remembered that when we keep the ball alive we are fairly unstoppable. Still there were the careless errors and the desire to put ourselves under pressure for no reason at all. However, we did score some superb tries and maybe watching the Lions in action against Australia on the journey had the desired effect. Certainly when we flow we play a really attractive brand of rugby that is a joy to watch. When we don’t …….! Overall though the winning habit continues.
Tries were scored by Harry Sturge, Gregoire Imber, James Cotterill, Jacob Clarke and Harry Nicholls with Jacob adding some conversions.
2nd XV Won 50 - 0
Another highly convincing win for the 2nds against a weak opposition. Our style of rugby was purposeful and meaningful and we scored some superb tries. Tries came from Dom Dixon, Robert Hadley, Monty Jenkins, Harry Beaton-Brown, Alfie Summers and Alexander Martine.
U11 A Lost 14-26
The whole team and I were looking forward to Saturday's game with eager anticipation as we had not played a 12-a-side game together since Bishop's Stortford College on the 16th October. However, since then we had won the 7s tournament quite convincingly. Therefore, expectations were high. However, we seemed to have developed another case of ‘Saturdayitis’ and were very slow to start. In fact they scored first which was a wakeup call for us. We then played better and score two tries to put us back in the lead. However the boys just seemed to lose momentum. Missed tackles; slow around the park; late into rucks and mauls; dropping the ball; too many silly penalties; these were all things that happened in the second half. Add to this the fact that the opposition were really tenacious and hungry for the ball, this did not do us any favours. They scored twice more and we were unable to respond. We lost by four tries to two to a team which, on another day we could have beaten. I know the boys are really disappointed with their performance and they should be as they can play much better than that. The fact that they are so disappointed is to their credit as they really care about the game and the team. However, there were a few areas to celebrate as a few of the boys stepped up to be counted and played well under pressure. Lessons should be learned as I am sure we would all want to finish the season on a high.
U11 B Won 41 - 0
Tries: C Connor, C Wallace, O Craig, T Gilbert (3), E Hoare. Con: S Martinez-Minett 3
A really polished performance, in which all the players were thinking of what was going on and reacting to the opposition. The forwards dominated in set pieces, providing lots of ball for the backs to use. It was really pleasing to watch the boys putting all of the things that we practice into our match play; well done to all the players.
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