Year 9 Rugby team make it through to the Hull Schools cup semi final
After a long season of ups and downs, the year 9 Rugby team have managed to grind out a difficult win against Malet Lambert to move into the Semi Final of the Hull Schools cup.
Just like the season the match was full of ups and downs; The Sirius boys started the game strong leading from the forwards setting the platform with big drives forward, creating all sorts of problems for the Malet defence. In particular, Brandon Sargeson brought his best performance to date, using his size and power to boulder over the Malet forwards allowing his team to get an early roll on. With the first set completed and Malet under pressure in their own half, Sirius managed to keep them pinned and turn the ball over just 10 meters out. It was at this point that Brandon managed to get his reward with a barnstorming run to score under the posts, which was converted by ben canvess to take the score to 6-0. As spirits were high, right from the restart on the 3rd tackle Harry Coulbeck put on a fantastic display of speed and power to manoeuvre through an opening, and run 30 meters to score under the posts and extend the score to 12-0. It almost seemed like Malet didn’t turn up, as the Sirius boys were dominating in all areas of the game. This carried on for the first 15 minutes of the match with a perfect completion rate that allowed them to travel the distance of the pitch each time that they had the ball. The next try came from Matthew coulter, who had worked hard in attack to step through the defence near the line, carrying two of the Malet players on his back whilst scoring the third try of the game. This extended the lead to 16-0. With all of the unanswered points, Sirius began to relax. This was the turning point of the match, as Malet came through to score their first try and bring the score to 16-4. The call from the boys was ‘no more trys’, although this didn’t stand to be true, as mistakes began to creep in through silly decisions that lead to too much defending, causing the lads to tire and struggle.
Into the second half Sirius was still weak in defence; this allowed Malet to get a roll on using their big forwards and creative play to score another 12 unanswered points which levelled the game at 16-16. The Sirius passion didn’t look as pertinent as it did in the initial 15 minutes of the match. With a worried defence and a shaky attack the Malet side capitalised and scored again to take the lead for the first time 20-16. A stringent coaches talk put the game into perspective and the boys found their passion to pick themselves up and carry on working for each other. With just 10 minutes of the match to go and teams looking evenly placed, Harry Coulbeck got his hands on the ball and ran from one end of the pitch to the other to find a gap that sent him clear so he could use his place and score in the corner to level the scores 20-20. From this point on the sideline was tense from both teams and parents, it was all in the air as to who was going to create the spark and score the wining try. It was made clear that there was 1 minute to go from the referee. At this point Sirius were 40 meters away from the Malet try line on the last tackle; it was Sam Mcaulay that placed the kick putting it high and straight into the arms of a Malet player to start their tackle count. From here the Malet winger came in to dummy half with 40 seconds left on the clock and began to run past out winger and down the sideline which he was sure to score!. The referees hand went up and the relieving sound of his whistle alarmed the sideline. Nobody knew what had happened?, after a couple of seconds in suspense the referee signalled that the winger had stepped in touch!. With a sigh of relief the Sirius boys packed down for the final scrum and play of the game. It was from here that Joe Kennedy got his hands on the ball and used his strength to crash through the defence and score right in front of the posts to secure a win for the boys 26-20. After the conversion the final whistle went and the boys celebrated with relief!.
A huge well done for their persistence and passion to take the win and move into the semi final of the Hull Schools cup.
Joe Kennedy, Lewis Hannon, Harry Coulbeck, Kyle Scott, Taylor Eastwood, Sam Mcaulay (Year 8), Ben Canvess, Joe Aitchison, Jackson Davis-Barker, Kai Green, Matthew Coulter, Brandon Sargeson, Tom Borman, Joe Laden and Leon Stewart (Year 8).
Special thanks to Kai Thorpe with the team.
