Sirius West Vs Sirius North – September 2016
The first game of the season for our new year 7 Rugby team was played this evening, with the first match against Sirius North. As expected, there was some banter flying around between the two sides, however it was what happened on the pitch what mattered to both teams.
Sirius West won the toss to kick the ball to North, it was here where the hard work began. A big chase from the west boys put the north winger under pressure which saw him make the first fumble of the match and turn the ball over to a confident West team. The boys began the restart quickly with a bone shaking drive forward from Malachi Tony. This set the platform for Sam Hassard, as he exploited the defence from dummy half, through a quick play to scatter the square men to go in under the sticks and convert to take the score to 6 – 0.
For the first 12 minutes it was all Sirius West leading the way in both attack and defence. This had the North boys wondering what was happening; all until Jack Moore made a break down the wing from an excellent pass that split their defence. Jack was sooo excited that he sprinted for the line to place the ball down and score, he jumped for joy as it was his debut and he had scored! Only to his dismay, the referee had blown his whistle to destroy his dreams to tell him that he was 10m short of the line and it was a Sirius North scrum for a knock on. From the restart the North team regained confidence and began to carry the ball well, the half backs began to link and cause all sorts of problems for our defence. They had made it almost 80m down the pitch from an excellent set. As the West boys collected the ball, they were under pressure from a big chase from North. It was Sam Hassard again who stepped up to take control of the game from a scoot 40 metres back up the pitch, it was here where he began to run out of steam and confidently played a short ball to Finley McKenzie who outpaced the fullback to score to the left of the posts. this extended the lead to 12-0.
This try evidently frustrated the Sirius North team; whilst to the detriment of the West boys, made them sit back and take their foot off the gas. This was recognised by the back line of the North attack, this lead them to play the ball wide and cause trouble for the wingers of the West defence. As the half backs created a link, they managed to find a chink in the West armour as they went in for a well earned try to take the score to 12-6. From here both teams were excited and revved up to go on to win the game.
From the second half kick off, it was tense as both teams were battling it out to win the arm wrestle. It was big hit for big hit, as Bailey Jennisons frustration landed on one of the North boys which saw him make his way off the pitch through injury. There were good attacks from both sides which were overted as three tackles were made into touch in quick succession. As the game approached 16 minutes in to the second half, a Sirius North winger went in to intercept the ball and failed, the ball landed in Baileys hands and he skipped through the defence to score and extend the score to 20-10. This wasn’t the last for the boys, as confidence grew they again began to close down the attack of North. The final try came from Jack Moore who received the ball from a well drilled Sam Hassard (this time it wasn’t short!! he made sure!). This completed the game and secured a Sirius West win 24-10.
Well Done to the Year 7 team:
Bailey Jennison, Finley Mckenzie, Jack Moore, James Gray, Will Furmage, Maccauley Medlam (C), Connor Arnold, Sam Hassard (MOM), Fletcher Elliott, Alfie Cater-Minns, Charlie Woolons, Malachi Tony, Ryan Platten and Alfie Ayers.
