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Year 7 Rugby Success

On a cold Saturday morning the Year 7 rugby side met at 8am at Brighton Rugby Club to play the Brighton Cup. After a very good warm up, putting into practice everything we had done at training throughout the year, the side were ready for the task ahead.

We were given the draw and in our group were Longhill, Patcham and Varndean. The first game was against Longhill and Stringer hit the ground running with a convincing 15-0 win against a much improved Longhill side. Our next game was against Patcham, who put up an excellent fight but again the Stringer side class shone through, with us running out 15-10 winners. Our final match was against a very large Varndean side which was always going to be the decider as to who went through winners of our group Some very quick attacking rugby was played by Stringer which resulted in us running out 10-0 winners and we progressed to the semi-final as group winners.

The boys confidence was growing with every game and we now had some belief within the team that we could go onto to win this. The semi final draw was made and Stringer had Cardinal Newman. Both schools are renowned for their skilful attacking rugby and this match was no different. In our warm up we talked about playing quick attacking fast rugby and boy did we do that! The game started and Stringer took the game straight to Newman. With us now playing quick flowing expansive rugby Newman were unable to stop us. Four tries later and the game was out of sight! The final score was 20-0 to Stringer, a very convincing win over a tough Newman side.

The final was to be played against Hove Park, our bogey team of the season. We had already played them twice and unfortunately lost both games, but today we were confident of causing an upset by using our quick fast attacking style of rugby. With the boys now fully focused on what we had to do, it was a case of running through the warm up and getting physically prepared. The game started and it was a very physical game! After early attacks from both sides, the games settled and then suddenly Stringer broke through and scored a try. Could we hold out now for the remaining 7 minutes left of the game? Hove Park then piled on the pressure and it was our turn to defend. They ran at us and boy did we tackle. We had to make some very physical tackles but the lads rose to the occasion and stood strong. As the final whistle approached we had a determined look about the side. In what can only be described as me watching our lads grow from boys into young men, we held strong and didn't let Hove Park anywhere near our line. The final whistle came and we had done it by the narrowest of margins, 5-0! We had finally beaten Hove Park and in the game that really counted. The Brighton Cup and medals were awarded and the celebrations began. Two special mentions must go to Connor Martin and Charlie Island for outstanding play the whole day, but it's a team effort and all of the following boys contributed hugely to our win:

Well done boys, a fantastic achievement, now we've got to keep it up!

Mr Lawrence | PE Department