11 Boys BSRU Rugby 7s

On Thursday 16 March, a week after their previous tournament the year 11 boys headed for QEH playing fields to compete in the Bristol Schools Rugby Union 7s competition. On their arrival they discovered that they had been drawn in pool A along with Clifton College, QEH and Castle School. A number of the team were struggling with injuries which left the boys struggling for fitness & numbers! Although depleted, nothing could stop them from enjoying their last opportunity to play together!

St Kath’s 12 v 29 Clifton College

In their first game the boys faced tough opposition in the form of Clifton College. They didn’t help themselves by conceding three tries inside the first 4 minutes of the game. Sometimes these boys really struggle to get going and in these competitions there just isn’t any time for that! Heads were down and the group were in desperate need of something to kick start their performance. That spark came in the form of Leon Paul who just took the ball up to the line hard on a good angle and went through the middle of the defence to score under the posts & convert. All of a sudden things were not looking quite so bleak and 7-17!

At half time the boys had a mini appraisal of their opening and decided to channel their frustrations into their second half rugby. Things almost got off to a flyer when Danny put through a little grubber kick for Leon to collect and put his head down for the run in. The Clifton College covering defender gave hard chase and made a tackle on Leon dislodging the ball in goal. In all honesty Leon did mightily well to even cross the line with such an impressive defensive effort to fend off. The positive theme continued when 2 minutes into the second period half back Danny Conway went over for a score. The boys were looking good for getting back into the game. Clifton College’s response was a strong and determining one as they upped their level to put the tie to bed late in the second half with 2 more scores. St Kath’s may have left the field disappointed with the result but took great heart from the character and resilience they showed. If only they could have started from the beginning!

St Kath’s 12 v 5 QEH

Their second tie against QEH School was a real arm wrestle; evidence enough from the fact that the boys went into half time at 0-0. Not before a sustained period of pressure in QEH territory, countless errors, a scrum firmly wedged in reverse and crossing the white line only to be given dead in goal! Errors are one thing but compounding those errors with poor discipline is another and it was fair to say that I wasn’t particularly happy when we started the second half with a penalty against us on the half way line!

The second half saw the continuation of the arm wrestle as the rugby wasn’t particularly pleasing on the eye. Nobody was more frustrated with the standard of play than stand-off Macie King and it was his eventual line break that led to the first score of the match which he converted. Danny, Macie and Leon were showing themselves to be a fantastic axis and were proving difficult to defend against. Leon cut another good line for the second try of the game which took the total to 12. A late QEH score quickly refocused the boys as they had to grind out the final seconds of the game and bundle the ball of the pitch in fairly ugly fashion. It certainly wasn’t pretty but it was a win!

St Kath’s 12 v 17 Castle

The boys went out for their final group game in search of qualification for the semi-finals and knew that Castle had drawn to QEH not having their most pleasing performance either. Both sides were out in search of better rugby & the second qualification spot. Castle started the much stronger of the two sides and dominated the early possession. They made the boys pay and scored their first inside the opening minute after some strong running. St Kath’s fought their way back into the game and a converted try from Leon Paul after 3 minutes put them in the lead. Scoring tries wasn’t their problem; in fact they had fire power to burn in the backline and were looking threatening with ball in hand. They just couldn’t get any fluidity in their offloading, were uncharacteristically sluggish to the break down and falling off tackles. Caste took full advantage and scored their second before the half time whistle.

The final crushing blow was when Caste went over again almost immediately from the restart. SK made a series of errors; a dropped ball followed by an inaccurate clear up turned over possession and then several missed tackles later and the scramble defence had been beaten giving the opposition a try under the posts and all but handing them the game. The scores were at 17 – 7 meaning that SK needed 2 scores regardless of kicks. The stakes were raised when Leon showed great pace on the wide outside to beat the winger & covering defender to the corner to touch down to make the last 30 seconds interesting. Leon wasted no time with the almost impossible kick knowing that the additional 2 points were meaningless. The boys now found themselves ball in hand well into the last play of the game needing 1 more try to clinch victory. Sadly it wasn’t to be and the boys turned the ball over to concede the tie. This meant they were now to play in the 3^rd place play-off.

St Kath’s 24 v 17 Sidcot

In stark contrast to the final minutes of the Castle game the boys could afford to play with real freedom in this game. You could see the almost immediate transformation in their play as they started to relax. In fairness to Sidcot, they were absolutely spent after a nail-bitingly close encounter with Bristol Grammar School. Leon Paul showed his class in this final game with three tries; the pick off which was a fantastic kick, chase and collect to really showcase his footballing talents. Lewis Mason scored the final try for St Kath’s after a dummy and step from short range – Lewis has developed somewhat of a habit of getting points that are on offer in these situations.

Two special mentions to Ed Powell and George Stiley – neither of whom had played 7s before the afternoon. Ed almost had himself a try in the Sidcot game but was stopped short of the line. George also had an excellent afternoon and was typically tenacious around the tackle & breakdown! In short it just wasn’t their afternoon for a number of reasons but they didn’t let it dampen their moods and still enjoyed playing together for the last time.

Good work gentlemen.

Mr Cook