Year 10 Win the league!

[13 Oct 2015]

 After a slow start to an away fixture at Archbishop Sentamu, the year 10 rugby team battled it out to take the victory and become the league winners. 

The team have players out suffering with injury, leaving the remaining players to step up into positions that they wouldn’t usually play. At first this was perceived to be a detriment, with a weak start that lead to 2 penalties within the first 4 minutes of play. These penalties proved vital to Archbishop, as they managed to gain 60 yards and force the error from a kick, leading to their first try on the 5th minute taking them 4 – 0 up. Despite the scoreline, Sirius were settling in to the match and  maintained a 100% set completion rate for the first 10 minutes; although this was not sufficient to hold off the attack of Archbishop. A clever chip over from their stand-off in the 12th minute sent the winger over to score in the corner to leave Sirius trailing 10 – 0. This try was the wakeup call for Sirius; A positive attitude and exemplary completion rate saw Sirius up their game and begin to turn the tables. An outstanding piece of play from the link of both halfbacks saw Jack Arnett make a soaring run through the defensive line and go crashing over for the first try, which was successfully converted by Declan Jackson to take the score to 10 – 6. With just 3 minutes of play left in the first half Sirius had the ball in hand and looked dangerous with every attack. Persistence finally paid off as Declan Jackson ran a fantastic line to break the defence with Jack Scottow closely following to receive the pass and Score to the left of the posts just before half time, leaving the score at 10 – 10 on the half time whistle.  

 

Both teams came out with fire in their bellies at the start of the second half. The Sirius forwards were running hard and strong with the running backs looking dangerous with every attack. It wasn’t until the 8th minute that any action began, in the form of a planned Sirius move that was perfectly executed off the back of Mikey Lewis to send Dillan Epworth through a gap and see him score a try in the corner. The kick was missed and left the score in favour of Sirius 14 – 10. Tension was building between both teams which was evident as there were 3 unforced errors over the next 4 minutes of play. Sirius were left defending their line leading through the forwards in the centre of the field, as Declan Jackson and Matthew Wilson crashed into a tackle to force an Archbishop error and relieve the pressure. The next phase of play saw an exciting Sirius attack through fast and effective play which put Archbishop on the back foot. This was well spotted by Connor Matthews who exploited the defence with a dummy and swift footwork to take him 30 yards to score under the posts leaving the score 20 – 10. Sirius began to get a roll on looking confident in defence and more dangerous with every attack. The lads began to play more champagne rugby, running set plays and threatening the Archbishop line. It was off the back of one of these plays that sent Declan Jackson through to score under the posts to extend the lead to  26 – 10. Sirius were urged not to ‘take their foot off the gas’; however this was not received as Archbishop fired back just 2 minutes later to score and reduce the lead to 26 – 16. This fired the motivation of archbishop who applied firm pressure to the Sirius defence leading to a missed tackle to send their number 6, 40 yards under the posts to bring them within a try at 26 – 20. A frustrated Sirius team didn’t hold up to the pressure of Archbishop. When Sirius managed to turn over the ball they threw it away with a rushed kick on just the first tackle. From an Archbishop restart and a missed tackle on the far side, left Archbishops centre running 50 yards to set up the second row with a perfect 2 Vs. 1 pass around Jack Scottow to score in the corner bringing the scoreline to 26 – 24. With a kick to come and no time left on the clock everyone was watching in anticipation…..

FORTUNATELY for Sirius the kick was missed and the lads won 26 – 24. The lads made hardwork of what should have been a comfortable win. But  a massive congratulations on their grit and determination to keep going and come away with the league after a gripping game. 

Well done to the lads!!

Jack Scottow, Reece Gooch, Keane Stevenson, Dylan Hepworth,  Jack Arnett, Mikey Lewis, Connor Matthews, Matthew Wilson, Kieran Bartlett, Harrison Longden, Rhys Purchon, Declan Jackson and Luke Moss.

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