On a wet and windy day, the U16s travelled to Surrey for a six team round robin tournament taking place at Gordon’s School.
We kicked off our tournament campaign with a 26-10 victory over St Jo’s, showing aspects of how well we can play and knowing there were improvements to be made as we went into our next big match against Wellington School. It is fair to say that we rose to the occasion brilliantly, playing some fantastic 7s and beating Wellington 38-10.
As the day continued so did the brilliant results, managing convincing wins over St George’s Weybridge, Gordon’s, and then progressing into the semi finals with Chobham forfeiting our scheduled fixture.
Our semi final game was a repeat one against St George’s. The conditions were getting worse, putting our foundations of basic skills to the test in order to be successful. The boys managed to achieve this with another exceptional performance, using both physicality and speed to win the semi final game 40-0, setting up a scintillating final against our local neighbours St Jo’s.
With injuries taking place throughout the day, and one more occurring in the semi final, the final was always going to be a good test of character as we were down to just eight men. Through conceding early on, it took fantastic character and fight by all of the boys to rescue the game, and take the win and become Gordon’s champions, with a 21-12 win.
The resilience shown throughout the day in testing conditions and losing players was superb – a very well-deserved undefeated day for the U16s. We look forward to seeing them run out again this weekend at our home tournament.
Lastly a special mention to Dave A O on receiving the award of player of the tournament, a huge well done to him.
Mr Reed, Rugby Coach
