The U14A rugby team travelled to Witney Rugby Club on Tuesday 9 December to compete in the U14 Oxfordshire County Cup Final. Their journey so far had seen them convincingly come top of their group, with wins against Gosford Hill School (31-19), Farringdon Community College (53-7) and St Birinus School (43-0). Their opponents in the final, Marlborough School, were the winners of Group B.
The boys settled quickly into the physicality of the Cup Final. After withstanding several early waves of pressure, sports scholar Matty Fitzgerald made a lovely break only to be hauled down a yard or two short of the line. This break gave the side impetus and despite playing against a gale force wind and driving rain, Shiplake started to assert themselves on the game. Callum Theodorou (sports exhibitioner) was as lively as ever and Josh Shortland, Jerome Rocks (Year 8) and Freddie Lind provided the go forward. Aelfric Philliskirk was again too powerful for the opposition and scored two tries in quick succession to put us up 12-0. However, Shiplake conceded right at the end of the half handing the momentum to Marlborough.
The second half was all about game management and Matt Dalrymple (sports scholar) did this brilliantly, probing the corners of the field to squeeze the life out of our opposition. Theodorou then scored the game breaker – a lovely little dummy (much to Mr Gaunt’s delight!) saw the effervescent scrum half score a great little try. This was followed by an outstanding finish by Jerome Rocks and one more for skipper Josh Howard. Despite this we had to be resilient in defence with the extremely dangerous broken field runners of Marlborough School constantly threatening our defensive structure.
The game finished at 31-12 after which the boys were understandably delighted. Congratulations to all of the pupils who have been involved in the County Cup this year and lastly a huge thank you to Mr Walter who stepped in at the last minute to accompany the squad to Witney RFC.
