U14A v Bohunt School – Berkshire County Cup Final

Congratulations to our RBC U14As – County champions – who secured a confident victory at yesterday’s Berkshire County Cup Final against Bohunt School.

• Result: won 29 – 10
• Scorers: Tries: Millard (3), Lunn, Long Cons: Millard (2)
• Player of the match: Millard
• Honourable mentions: Luff, Lunn, Shedden, Woolhouse, Bajaj, Arnold

 

 

A season bookended by cancelled fixtures for concrete-like pitches – the opening due to baked ground the closing due to frozen rubber crumb. The finale of the season, twice delayed, was scheduled on another Baked Alaska of a day – a hotly contested fixture – wrapped in an icy atmosphere that promised to turn exposed flesh blue and fingers to icicles! This coupled with a six-week rest since the last fixture meant we were going to have to return to a basic game-plan as the two training sessions on two bog-like pitches were of little use to us!

Warming up (or at least trying to) on the rubber-crumb based 3g pitch at Maidenhead was entertaining, the bounce of the ball was bizarre, and the ground was not as forgiving as we were used to. Yet we went through the usual routine and our hands were good and the passes were sticking, however as the whistle went, trying to be over-ambitious, both sides were troubled by spilled catches and dropped passes. After a settling few minutes, Harry Millard spotted a defence that was too close and put a short kick over them which, despite the bizarre bounce-characteristics of the pitch, popped up into his hands and he had a clear path to the line and gave himself the easiest of conversions to put us seven points up after five minutes.

Within five minutes we gave away a silly penalty just outside our own twenty-two, they took a quick tap and we, slow to reset, allowed their big winger to get up to speed and take a quick retaliatory try, luckily not close enough for their talented outside half to get it through the uprights. We survived the next few minutes with our narrow lead fortuitously, no thanks to a fairly even distribution of knock-ons from ambitious passes from both sides.  We found ourselves just inside their twenty-two and beneficiary of a scrum in our favour after a fumbled catch. Henry Crowhurst performed his mystical role at the heart of the scrum majestically and the ball appeared at James Lunn’s feet almost too quick for him to deal with, wisely he grubbed it backwards rather than risk the knock-on in the pick-up and this gave Benjy Long another opportunity to take a classic scrum-half try, sniping around the set piece and touching down having avoided the attentions of flankers and his opposite number. We went into half-time just ahead with a promise of the edge over the opposition but not confident in the score-line.

We started the second half with confidence and a mental attitude that meant passes were reaching their targets and sticking. Toby Arnold began a demonstration of his kicking ability by popping a kick from hand over the opposing line, again bouncing into Millard’s hands allowing him to cross the line with a kicker’s consideration, making his score a guaranteed seven pointer.

The next passage of play was marked by repeated incidences of Joe Woolhouse weaving his way through their lineouts and stealing their ball, pretty much forcing them to tap from any subsequent penalty, and Cyrus Bajaj, as he has done, without fail, all season – rock solid under the high ball, beating the first defender and crossing the gainline every single time.

The one feature of our game that had yet to be demonstrated was the “Lunn-crunch” but James, realising his mistake, picked up the ball from the base of a scrum just inside our ten-metre line and began his slow but determined acceleration to wing-crunching speed, on the way both their nine and ten got fingers on him but he outpaced them, he worked his way around the rest of their back line until he reached full-tilt meaning no-one could catch him and he crossed the line for yet-another Lunn-style try!

By this point our confidence was at its’ peak, we found ourselves in a dominant position, thanks to the dumping tackles of Toby Shedden and Will Luff and the entertaining battle that Toby Arnold found himself in with a certain Master Dance! This allowed “maestro” Millard to find, yet another, mazy route through their defence to bring up his hat-trick and cement his position as the season’s top scorer and player of the match.

We allowed their scrum half to slip through our defences as a last-minute consolation yet overall the match summed up the season, an absolutely stunning team effort from a selfless group of determined and talented individuals working as one to play some excellent rugby. Thank you all, I have enjoyed coaching you and working with you, I am sure you will go on to great things in future seasons!

Mr A Colville
Head of Biology
Head of Academic Enrichment (Lower and Middle School)