Year 9 Rugby Result – Purbeck School 39 Lytchett Minster School 17
The Purbeck year 9 team started off their rugby season with an emphatic win against local rivals Lytchett, coming out victorious 39-17. The squad was dashed with talent including some talented year 8’s playing up an age group and a student who has never played rugby before, epitomising the rugby ethos.
Purbeck started brightly, dominating the share of possession, rucking continuously up the pitch to then find the ever-present TJ Shearer to hammer over the line for the first try of the game. This was acutely converted by Will Wright (7-0). Lytchett then enjoyed their fair share of possession, which resulted in some excellent defence from the red and blacks, including a two man cover tackle by Will Wright and Jack Bridstock. After an excellent clearance kick and a huge bosh in midfield, the ball was worked to the extremely agile Cristian Keefer, who weaved his way in and out of multiple defenders to score down the right-hand touch line (12-0). Then Purbeck really turned on the pressure, working the ball through that hands with excellent lines of support and acute offloads. The ball then worked its way to speedster Archie Simmonds, who scored in the corner (17-0). After numerous kicks to the corner in attempts to maul the ball over the line, Will Wright then made the quick decision to ‘tap and go’, darting through the defence and playing in the bulldozer, TJ Shearer to score his second directly under the posts. This was expertly converted, putting Purbeck 24-0 up. Then on the stroke of half term came ‘try of the game’. Purbeck decided to run the ball from their own 22, initially through tight pod work in the forwards sucking Lytchett defenders in, allowing space for TJ to break down the left-hand side. He was excellently double tackled by two Lytchett players to then offload the ball ‘Sonny Bill Williams style’ to the back of his hand to Jack Lowry who sped in to the try line. This was excellently converted by Will Wright from the touchline giving Purbeck a 31-0 lead at half time.
Due to the correct rugby ethos, Purbeck rang the changes at half time, taking off five players including their playmaker and bulldozing machine. This gave less experienced and younger players a chance, as well as allowing other players to step up and lead. Lytchett put Purbeck under significant pressure for the next 15 mins, and despite some valiant defensive tackling from Ren Elliot, Aidan Macey and Jack Bridstock, Lytchett ran in 3 quick tries, making the score 31-17 with 10 minutes left. Purbeck then struck back quickly, working the ball down the pitch for Jack Lowry to cut in and with one long reach place the ball directly on the try line to score his second. Final score 38-17.
An unbelievable start to the season for all players, with 20 Purbeck students involved. It is so lovely to see the development of these boys and with Bath DPP trials looming, I foresee many a student being successful and taking their rugby to the next level. Man of the match was 100% the highly resilient Jack Bridstock, who quite simply epitomised resilience in both attack and defence, ball carrying the ball fiercely and being a defensive tackling machine.
Team: O. Lee, T. Northover, A. Helas, A. Macey, R. Elliot, J. Bridstock, Joe S, L. Cooper, W. Wright (cc), A. Simmonds, TJ. Shearer (cc), C. Keefer, C. Lamb, G. Ford, H. Tucker, H. Harris, J. Lowry, H. Wright, J. Ginno, A. Burt, E. Griffiths.
Mr Tarbard
