Rugby 7s Success

This week Purbeck sent over a year 7 and year 9 rugby 7s team to two separate tournaments one at Bournemouth RFC and the other at Lytchett RFC. Both teams improved drastically through the tournament, playing some excellent rugby in both attack and defence.

Year 9 Tournament

The year 9 team unbelievably impressed me throughout the tournament getting better and better. Having been deliberately put in one of the two hardest groups, they finished the tournament unbeaten.

In the first game, the boys played Bishops Wordsworth School and in a very much ‘end to end’ game won 25-20. Due to fixture congestion, the boys had to play games back-to-back as resultantly drew 20-20 against Gillingham. After a long break the students played some of their rugby in the next two games. Firstly, after a lot of rotations to the squad, Purbeck beat Bournemouth Collegiate 35-5, setting up a group topping ‘winner takes all’ match against QE. The game was absolutely awesome, with some ferocious tackling and rucking. QE scored first, with Purbeck coming back strongly scoring two tries just before half time. The second half was end-to-end, with Purbeck scoring to make it 3-1 with 5 minutes to go. This was followed up by a QE bombardment of the try line, with one try saving tackle and ‘backs against the wall’ defence (including a held up try), Purbeck held on to win the group.

Unfortunately, due to a neck injury on the adjacent pitch, the final knockout stage of the tournament was stopped, and rightly so as the young person health was of the upmost importance. I hear today that the young man is ok.

To pick out individual performances was extremely difficult as it really was a squad effort from 1-12. They were all winners in my eyes, but the ultimate winner was rugby. A fantastic afternoon!

1. Humphreys, E. Williams-Hall, T. Willis, E. Trent, E. Dallimore, K. Barton, J. Myers, J. Marler, N. Evans, J.Wilkins, I. Griffiths, H. Crouch, H. Brown

Year 7 Tournament

On Monday, I had the great pleasure of spending the afternoon at Bournemouth RFC with a lovely group of year 7 students who progressed really well throughout the afternoon to finnish 7^th out of 17 schools.

Their first game was a ‘baptism of fire’ against Bishops Wordsworth, who were definitely the best team in the competition, losing 45-5. However, this was definitely the best thing that could have happened to the team as it really made them raise their game for the rest of the tournament. In their second game at half time the boys were 15-5 down to Bournemouth Collegiate School, but then started one of the best comebacks I have seen in recent years, sadly eventually losing out 25-20. With the boys constantly learning, tackling lower and supporting each other, they then played some of their best rugby of the afternoon beating Poole High 30-25. In their final game they continued this good form and progress, dominating a Bishop of Winchester team 20-10.

Overall, it was steep learning curve for the boys, who gave their all in every game. They were all an absolute pleasure to coach all afternoon.

1. Simmonds, W. Wright, T. Shearer, R. Elliott, M. Smith, J. Mclenan, L. Cooper, O. Lee, G. Betts, Z. Davies, T. Northover.