Sirius overcome weather conditions to reach National Quarter-Finals!
The Sirius Year 10 Rugby team overcame atrocious weather conditions in Cumbria to progress through to the last 8 of the Carnegie Champion Schools National Cup. The boys showed great maturity in overcoming the difficulties of the long 4 hour drive down to the match, after leaving the Academy at 8am. Their behaviour and conduct throughout the day was a credit to the Academy, along with their sporting performance.
The match started in heavy rain, something that would continue throughout the match to make the ground very heavy underfoot, with Sirius knowing that ball control would be a big factor in winning the game. Led from the start by strong running from Andy Ogden and Liam Robinson, backed up by Liam Bilton and Aiden Armstrong the boys controlled the ball well and played off an outstanding kicking game from Jordan Abdull who repeatedly turned around the Netherall players. The first points came from the ever dangerous Macauley Adams, whose direct and aggressive running caused problems all match. Adams broke through from his own 40 metre line before rounding the full-back and finishing under the sticks, with Abdull converting for 6-0 Sirius. With Will Collier and Lewis Hackett showing great skill in taking high balls from the air, Sirius worked into a position for quick hands to Bilton who played in Collier to cross out wide for a 10-0 lead. Credit to Netherall who showed why they reached the Cumbrian Final and possessed two England players in their team as they kept pressuring Sirius however led from Macauley Duke and Adams the Sirius defence was excellent. From a Netherall mistake Abdull created a gap for Bilton to show strength in breaking the line and crossing with Robinson converting for a half-time lead of 16-0.
The second half began well for Sirius with captain Jansin Turgut once again leading from the front in making the hard yards for Sirius, backed up by Collier and Ogden. However it was the excellent partnership of James Buttery and Steven Marshall, who were making inroads into the Netherall defence. One such move resulted in Marshall bravely crossing out-wide, despite the attention of three defenders. Stephen Batty backed up his solid Yorkshire Cup Final display at scrum-half with another confident display, allowing Abdull the space to control the game, and in the process cross for a try and conversion to give Sirius a 26-0 lead. Abdull then created Colliers 2nd with a deft kick over, before Abdull again kicked and this time scored his 2nd and added the conversion to give Sirius a 36-0 lead. Further good work from the impressive Brandon Taylor, Liam Gordon and Macauley Longley, gave Adams the position to cross for his 2nd try with Abdull adding the extras for an excellent 42-0 victory.