Year 10 Rugby Success
Queen Elizabeth School 17 Purbeck School 40 (National Cup)This was 100% a game of ‘two halves’ with Purbeck clearly still napping on the bus. Purbeck were up against it right from the word go, letting the ball bounce from the kick-off with QE scoring instantly. Purbeck then put some phases together with the ball eventually going wide for Jack Brickstock to score. Purbeck were then their own worst enemies for the remainder of the half, gifting away possession cheaply and falling off tackles. QE went into half-time 17-5 up and, in my opinion, deservedly so.
After the old school ‘Alex Ferguson’ hair dryer treatment, Purbeck came out a completely different side in the second half. After a lovely long kick from Will Wright and an excellent kick chase from Henry Tucker, Purbeck had a lineout within the opposition 22. From the back of the lineout, Purbeck went through the phases for then TJ Shearer to drive his way over in the corner (expertly converted by Will Wright from the touch line). Purbeck then started running from deep, Will Wright put TJ through another hole, who then powered through and side stepped the full back to score. The next move resulted in Jack Brickstock being put out the back, missing out TJ who drew all the defenders. Jack used his pace a power to finish expertly again. Purbeck then had a scrum in midfield in which they picked and went blind. The ball was reversed the other way for TJ to complete his hatrick in a 15 minute period! Ryan Tizard then made an uncharacteristic 50m break, then for Will Wright to spot space in behind the defence. He put in a delicate chip for Ren Elliot to re-gather the ball and score. All conversions in the second half were expertly converted by Will Wright, with the end result being 40-17.
MOM – Aidan Macey - for overall physicality in attack and defence with excellent running lines.
The next round of the National Cup will be played in two weeks’ time, with the boys facing the winner of Pool Grammar and Claysmore.
Purbeck 32 – Lytchett 12 (Wessex League)
Purbeck dominated the majority of possession and territory in the first half, but Lytchett started winning the majority of the main collisions over the long gevity of it. Eventually, Aidan Macey picked up and went from the back of the ruck to power over after 10 minutes. Lytchett then came straight back at Purbeck, bundling over in the corner after some suspect clearance kicking. Just before half-time, Jack Lowry made a break down the wing to offload out of the tackle to an ever-present Joe Bohane to score his first of the afternoon. Lytchett then scored straight away from the resultant kick-off, cancelling out all the hard work that the Purbeck boys had just done. Most of the first half was contested with big hits, ball carries and dominant tackling, with Purbeck needing to move the ball quicker away from the contact and run at space, not players.
The second half saw a much more dominant and clinical approach from Purbeck. Straight away, the ball was turned over, resulting in a dominant hit out wide by Will Wright. From the resulting line-out, Lytchett lined up TJ Shearer with their two big tacklers only for him to evade them by passing the ball out the back of his hand to Jimmy McLeneren who put in Charlie Lamb to finish expertly in the corner. The floodgates then opened with Purbeck putting together phase after phase of hard running and rucking. Quick ball then came from open play with TJ Shearer throwing a very flat and precise left-handed pass to Joe Bohane at full speed to score his second of the game. In the last play of the game from a scrum in their own 22, Will Wright put TJ Shearer through a gap who nudged the ball off the boot for Jack Lowry to, ceil the victory. Fair play to Lytchett, a very hard and fair contest, with Purbeck emerging victorious.
MOM – Ren Elliot – for pure disruption of the ruck and big dominant hits to change momentum at key points in the game.
Team: Ren Elliot, Ryan Amey, Emyr Griffiths, Henry Harris, Ryan Tizard, Jack Brickstock, Aidan Macey, Lewis Cooper, Will Wright, Joe Bohane, TJ Shearer ©, Jimmy McLeneren, Bertie Warren, Charlie Lamb, Leon Farley, Thomas White, Jack Lowry, Rex Woolam, Henry Tucker.