Year 8 Rugby Tournament
25 April 2024

I took possibly the biggest team I’ve had for some time to Garforth Academy in high spirits after our last tournament in January. There were 12 schools at the tournament and we were split into two groups of 6. The top 3 teams from each group will gain a place in the “Premiership” tournament. The bottom 3 from each group will be entered into the “Championship” tournament.

Our group consisted of… Leeds East Academy, Allerton Grange, Garforth Academy, Brigshaw High School and Carr Manor. We knew from previous tournaments that Garforth and Brigshaw would be our most difficult games as a lot of their teams play out of school. We threw ourselves into our first games against Leeds East and Allerton Grange, scoring 5 tries in both games and only conceding 3 in total. This raised the team’s spirits and brought out their competitive edge. Next we played Garforth, this was an extremely close game where Garforth were able to steal the win in the final play of the game finishing 3-2.

We then played Brigshaw, spurred on from the defeat to Garforth, the boys took to the field determined to win. We opened the scoring very quickly which turned into a game of tennis, whenever we scored they were able to answer back. We drew this game 4-4.

Finally, for our last hope of remaining in the top 3, we played Carr Manor, thrashing them 5-3 in an amazing display of rugby skill and strength.

As always, the team were a pleasure to take out to the tournament. They embody the MSM values and remain resilient and competitive throughout even the toughest of games. I could write about every single one of them and how they impacted the results but as honourable mentions I must shout out…