The year 9 rugby team have started the Yorkshire plate with a bang

[23 Jan 2017]

The lads put on an influential display at home to send Spen Valley crashing out of the first round of the plate. It was an all Sirius display, with some great team and individual efforts to take the valley by storm. The game began with a high catch by Sam Macaulay who passed it to Ali Alsherife to open the first set. This was topped off by Tom Wilkinson who directed the play down the field to finish deep from a kick in the opponents half. The kick was collected successfully by the winger and returned to the middle of the field.

For the first 5 minutes play was even until Sirius started to get a roll on and win the armwrestle. Tom Wilkinson opened the scoring with a scoot that split the markers to go in under the posts bringing the score to 6-0. This roll continued from the restart as the ball went to Leon Stewart who ran 50 yards around the Spen defence to extend the lead to 12-0.

All traffic was going one way until the big number 12 of the Valley managed to spot a chink in the armour of the Sirius defence on their line. The smallest man on the pitch Omali Mukelenge was left stranded to take on a 6ft monster coming his way; despite his excellent effort, the big second rower stretched out from the tackle to land the ball over the try line and bring the score 12-4.

It seemed like the tries were coming off the back of small mistakes from both sides. This was followed through as Lewis Wilson managed to restart the match with a kick to touch to win the scrum down for Sirius just 20 meters away from the Valley line. This was converted as Sam Macaulay scooted the ball from the back of the scrum to skip through the defence and extend the lead 18-4.

From Sams try the floodgates were opened, as a further 4 unanswered tries were scored by Leon Stewart and Jack Mortimer to take the score to 42-4. There were many displays of confidence as the ball travelled the width of the pitch through numerous hands to create the 4 tries. Again it was Tom Wilkinson setting the platform from hooker that began the shift of the ball between Mason Palmer and Sam Macaulay who were delivering the wide passes for the lads to go through the line and score.

This was the perfect opportunity to try new players in different positions; Ali Alsherife and Leon Stewart were subbed off and the new lads had the opportunity to bond in the team and try new positions. Whilst this was going on the Sirius boys lost focus and allowed the number 12 to split the defence and go in the corner to give Spen Valley 4 easy points. However, these were the last points from the rivals as the team pulled together for the next 10 minutes and displayed some very good rugby both in attack and defence.

 As expected, Ali and Leon were getting itchy feet on the sideline so they were brought back on for the last minute of the game. With no more tries expected the lads kicked down field from the restart and Leon came out of nowhere to reef the ball from their big prop right under the sticks. However he did the selfless act of passing the ball to Sam Macaulay to complete the scoring to win the game 48 – 10. Onward and upwards to the next round…

Well done to the boys…

Ali Alsherife, Sam Mcaulay, Leon Stewart, Omali Mukelenge, Tom Wilkinson, Ali Hussain, Charlie Dobson, Kieran Simpson, Luke Taylor, Connor Foster, Lewis Wilson, Robbie Jones (Year 8), Jack Mortimer (Year 8), Mason Palmer (Year 8) and Kieran Welburn (Year 8).

Thankyou for your continued support

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