Year 9 Rugby
25 November 2024

WOW! WOW! WOW! What an evening that was!

After a shock, but not surprising, defeat against Cockburn in our first game, we displayed some good rugby but struggled throughout to get our heads in the right place to compete. Cockburn were a very well organised team who all play together outside of school. We never gave up and continued to challenge them whenever we had ball in hand. Unfortunately losing 4 tries to 1.

We then had a wait to play our final game against Leeds West. Thankfully this did not put out the fire that had ignited after our loss to Cockburn. The boys did not want to finish the evening after their first performance and set out to take the game to Leeds West as soon as it began.

In the opening minute James took the ball and ran around their entire team before straightening up to run in our first try. With some powerful tackling and impeccable discipline, we forced a handling error from Leeds West and regained the ball. With some fantastic plays and strong carries from Harry, Aleks and Emmanuel we got closer and closer to their try line before James again ran straight through their defence to score another try. From here the game evened out with strong runs from Leeds West seeing them cut through our defence and score twice to bring them level. We had a real fight on our hands. With our team’s grit and determination, they wanted to ensure Leeds West did not take victory after meeting them in the Campion Schools league earlier in the year.

We pushed up the field with several strong runs before Evan was tripped in a tackle resulting in a penalty 10 metres from the try line. Evan took a quick tap and ran it in, bursting through tackles and getting over the line himself. Finally, after receiving the kick off, we retained the ball and James was able to go on another of his wonderful, winding runs, beating defenders and eventually crossing the line carrying one of the opposition.

Our final game finished 4 tries to 3.

We WON!! WE ARE GOING TO THE FINAL!! (10th March so plenty of time to prepare)

As the game ended all of the boys began to celebrate like they had just won the World Cup. However, Harry went over and began to shake the oppositions hands, including their coach, thanking them for a great game of rugby. The others quickly realised and followed suit. Harry has really grown into the captaincy he has been given and leads by example both on and off the pitch.

Below are the names of the students that played this evening:

Harry Cawthorne (C), Aleksander Bogdanowicz, Ngaanue Nguvauva, Emmanuel Pelo, Chivuso Amoke, David Batista Neto, Riley Clark, James Kaba, Sekou Kourouma, Simao Marques, Evan Whitford, Chinonso Okunbor, Tiago Malu, Zoel Deji,Demi Awosanya
and Hayden Wright.

Mr S Cooper