After an exceptionally early Sunday morning what followed was a remarkably quick flight into Bordeaux. Before the boys had a chance to soak up the sunshine that greeted us we were on the bus and off to our first fixture.
A combined u16/17 side played against a strong side from St Albans School, England.
In what was a cracking game of rugby officiated by our very own Mr Kift Hurst came out victorious 24-21.
Hurst twice came back from behind, once after conceding two soft tries early on in the first half, missed tackles and giving the ball away!! The team were spurred on by the centre partnership of Johnson and Newland who broke gainline freely which eventually resulted in a try for Jonny Newland (converted by Newland) Sam Johnson break and offload set Jonny up under the posts. Followed up seconds later by a kick through from Joe Ratcliff, Harry Compton gathered the ball on the run evaded two defenders and from the resultant penalty for killing the ball James Hadfield quickly tapped, went and bulldozed his way over the line.
With the scores tied at half time we went into the second half full of confidence. However a quick first half try from St Albans put us on the back foot (again). With unrelenting forward dominance thanks to O'Brien, Pfeiffer and an inspirational Miles Smith who put in a top effort chasing down the St Albans left wing to make a certain try saving tackle into touch.
With the dominance and amount of ball we were getting Ratcliff was allowed to orchestrate the game at fly half, James Hadfield bagged himself a brace following aggressive and direct running.
The score was close at 21 - 19 when Ratcliffe looped round Johnson and flung the ball wide sending the Ben Cohen esque Harry Compton storming down the touchline to score. 24-21
St Albans rallied a late comeback however the race to the tackle was won by Hurst and we took the victory.
Team - O'Brien, Hadfield, Mills, Smith (c), Jenkins, Pfeiffer, Hickmet, Oliver (Atkins, 45), Harvey (Christopherson, 35), Ratcliff, Osler-Holt, Newland (Hiller, 45), Johnson, Compton, King
Tries - Newland, Hadfield (2), Compton
Cons - Newland (2)
MOM (nominated by St Albans) - Sam Johnson
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