With almost all of the Shiplake teams facing off against Caterham School, it was a busy weekend for the Rugby Department. Minibuses must have crossed at some point on the M25, with five Shiplake buses going to Kent and four Caterham buses parking up at Shiplake. A mixed bag of results, but for attitude and sportsmanship we award our boys tens across the board! Also, two games were played by our girls' hockey teams, with some fantastic results and some excellent lessons learned.
Rugby
1st XV vs Caterham School
After the disappointment following the match against Reading Blue Coat, the boys started the week a bit down-hearted but soon broke out of that and started training well. They were looking for a better result this weekend.
The game started with Shiplake on the back foot after struggling to deal with some of the Caterham team. This quickly lead to Shiplake being down by two tries. Shiplake soon fronted up after not winning that first ten minutes, which they had focused on so much that week. The boys soon realized they were a lot more capable than they were performing and started to put pressure on the Caterham team. The Shiplake 1st XV started to build strong attacking play through the forwards and setting a good platform for the backs to play with to try to get the ball out wide to James Burgess and Jack Rees on the wings. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and soon led to Shiplake being under their own posts after Caterham scoring. Finishing the first half 17-0 to Caterham.
After a strong half time talk, the boys came out fighting with big hits going in from the boys, putting the pressure on Caterham. Shiplake were not able to keep this up and string it together for phases. The team slipped off a few tackles and soon found themselves a few more tries down. The boys then started to produce individual magic, starting with a carry down the wing with an offload to James Burgess to bounce someone down on the ground and carry on. The highlight of the match came from Callum Theodorou while using great awareness to kick the ball over the ruck and out run their covering man, before diving down for the try of the season so far.
The game finished 46-5 to Caterham. Shiplake played excellent in sections but still building the foundations for the season. The boys have two weeks of training to build for St George's Weybridge and come out with a better performance. Well done to Zack Green, Oli Frisby and James Burgess on excellent debuts.
2nd XV vs Caterham School
Shiplake started fast, with a quick defensive line putting pressure on the Caterham attack. Early in the game, after some strong Shiplake defence, penalties were awarded in our boys’ favour. Using these penalties and the boot of Ruffle, Shiplake worked their way into the opposition’s 22. Some strong running and quick play coordinated by Tremayne followed, and a quick break to the line by Ruffle set up Harry Allen to score on his 2nd XV debut.
Caterham came at Shiplake with strong running and a multitude of set plays from line outs but Shiplake’s defence held out until half time with some great tackling from the back line coupled with the forwards’ superb work rates.
Caterham started the second half fast but Shiplake matched them going back and forth. Until, a quick break and some strong rucking enabled Caterham to score twice in quick succession. Shiplake responded, lifting their game with quick backs moves and forward pickups.
High pressure from Shiplake pushed Caterham back to their own 5-metre line and a quick change in direction at the ruck led to Joe Ruffle putting another debutante Ben Ferguson through a gap in the defence for a try.
Again, Caterham came at Shiplake with strong running but the whole Shiplake team continued to tackle well, matching a bigger team physically. Captain, Tom Howlett set the example with some big tackles and everyone followed. Some last ditch tackling from many players in the team and a big final defensive spell saw the game finish 10-10.
3rd XV vs Caterham School
The match started against Caterham School with two players down and no substitutes so the Shiplake boys knew they were in for a long game. An excellent high kick-off left them right on the opposition’s 22 with a strong attacking momentum hitting the rucks with power, allowing a fast ball to come out for the back line. Unfortunately, the 3rd XV’s aggression was not converted into a try as possession was turned over in play due to the slippery ball resulting in a quick try for the opposing team. However, our boys’ heads remained high and they brought the Shiplake attack right back to them, with a similar situation of an attacking maul on their 22. The ball was quickly whisked out from the back of the scrum and with a fake right, Shiplake took the ball left, opening a massive hole in the defence for the attacking line to run through, leading to the 3rd XV’s first try from an inside off load from Harry Martin to Kai O’Hare.
At half time the scores were level, with Caterham only being less than a try ahead of us. Nonetheless, after what was judged to be a high tackle from the opposing team leaving one of our players with a potential neck injury, we had to move pitches, giving Shiplake a downhill advantage. With the wind in their sails, the 3rd XV were off to a good start, gaining an early try from Will Kayll in the corner. Unfortunately, that streak did not last long as a few consecutive tries were given to the opposing team. The last few moments of the game were particularly exciting with Kai O’Hare scoring another try from sniping over a ruck and running half the length of the pitch. However, Shiplake’s efforts were not enough, leaving the final score at 19-27 to Caterham. Thank you to all the players who played up from the under 16As and matching the physicality Under 18s side.
U15A vs Caterham School
After a long bus journey, the U15As started their match against Caterham, with the hosts kicking off and scoring early on. Shiplake responded immediately by scoring a brilliantly worked try by Nathan McCarthy, but Caterham soon pinned our boys back into the Shiplake 22 with some accurate kicking out of hand.
As the second half started, the score was 12-5 to Caterham. Shiplake, however, were not to be beaten and with the elements now in their favour, the U15As dominated the rest of the game. Four more well-constructed tries were achieved, three more by Nathan and another by Ed Taylor. In addition to these successes, the whole team defended excellently throughout and the final score was a well-deserved 41-12 to Shiplake College.
The U15As will be looking to extend their run of victories on Wednesday against Cokethorpe. Before that encounter, attacking accuracy will be the focal point of this week’s training.
U14A vs Caterham School
It was a very wet and cold Riverside pitch that met Shiplake U14s and their guests, Caterham. The team was really up for the match, having walked away from their most recent game without a win. Mr Griffiths and Mr Miller had told the team before the game to focus on doing our jobs well and keeping the ball through the phases. The game started at a terrific pace and a superb tackle by Mikey Aitken set the tone. Caterham were equally strong in the tackle, especially their giant captain. Shiplake scored first after an excellent line break by Reuben Logan. Caterham fought back with two tries and Shiplake went into half-time losing by 7 points. The second half started really well for Shiplake with a try from Sam Gillen that closed the gap to just 2 points. Shiplake increased the pace a lot and soon scored another two tries from Jamie McLeod and Olly Denison-Pendor. These tries gave us a lot of confidence and we finished the game really strongly and winning in the end by 24-14.
U14B VS Caterham School
The Shiplake U14Bs started their game against Caterham School with authority. Shiplake started strongly, keeping possession of the ball and turning the ball over in the breakdowns. This allowed Ollie Prosser to run in and score in the corner to take the early lead, 5-0. After a nice conversion by James Durkan, the U14Bs continued to show very good passing and attacking skills and maintained dominance in the breakdowns. This enabled them to stay in the Caterham half and eventually led to Fred Cripps crashing through their defensive line and score under the posts, followed by another nice conversion. Our boys started the second half two tries up but this didn’t make them overconfident and they kept pushing Caterham back into their half. This led to Shiplake scoring two more tries; one by Oliver Dee and the other by Louis Swinburne-Johnson. Overall, the team played very well and the final score was 24-0 to Shiplake.
U14C vs Caterham School
In the first quarter, Caterham scored a quick try but missed the conversion, giving them the lead. Manuel De las Carreras scored a quick try and made the conversion. It was now 7-5 to Shiplake. Caterham managed to maintain a good defensive line, so pushing them back was slow and inefficient. Eventually, Tomas Daccaretts scored a second try and the conversion was again scored by Manuel.
Shiplake began to put some good moves together but also showed some impressive defence. From some good tackling, the ball was turned-over and Manuel raced to the line. By the end, the score was 21-19 to Shiplake. It was a great start to the rugby season.
U12A v Gillotts School
The hot and dry summer impacted on the Under 12’s match against Gillotts last Tuesday, with the ground still rock solid and very sparse in grass. Nevertheless, it was a great chance for all boys to gain some competitive action in a touch rugby format with all players gaining a great deal from the experience. Both teams scored some fantastic tries and showed considerable skill and all coaches will be excited to really get to work the teams with plenty of matches this season. Certainly Shiplake will be working on width and attacking running but all boys should be congratulated for their efforts. The Under 12s cannot wait for Friday Night Lights in November, with a chance to play a contact match against Gillotts under the lights.
Reports collated by Captain of Rugby Robbie Cartwright
Hockey
Girls 1st XI v Reddam House
After only a few training sessions, Shiplake girls 1st hockey team were set to play Reddam House as their first league game. The game began with Reddam winning the toss, and choosing the side of the pitch they wanted to shoot towards, meaning Shiplake had first push back. The girls passed the ball around the pitch well, using the width to their advantage. Within the first few minutes, the ball had been intercepted and dribbled up the pitch before being crossed to Beattie Hooley in left attacker who pushed it into their bottom left corner. Shiplake had scored the first goal of the game. With morale high, Shiplake defended well with Lydia Lyons as sweep, alongside Maddy Simpson and Ella Nolson in defence, and the girls managed to win the ball off the attackers to pass it back through the midfielders. With great work from Tory Wyatt, Hattie Austin, and India Christie-Miller, the girls found an opening through Reddam’s solid line of defence to dribble through to Beattie who scored her second goal of the game. This was shortly followed by another goal from Beattie, who was successfully passed to by Georgie Stebbings as she ran the ball up the pitch. This was followed by the half time whistle.
Going into the second half, the girls had great morale and spirit and were raring to go. Reddam’s attack had upped their game, and passed the ball well around the pitch. With great work from Mary Keswick in goal, their shots on goal were deflected and fed back through the midfielders. Despite Shiplake’s strong defence, Reddam scored a goal to make the score 3-1. This didn’t deflate Shiplake, with Ellen Hodgson now as a right midfielder, she managed to dribble past their defender and passed the ball on to Hattie who competed successfully with the defence. This enabled the ball to be hit to Georgie in attack who hassled their defenders well. Despite more shots on goal, the final whistle blew which left the final score as 3-1 to Shiplake.
Well done to all the girls who played, and good luck for the rest of the season ; a special mention goes to Beattie for her first hat trick of the season. Player of the match went to Rhian Edwards.
Report provided by 1st XI Captain, Rhian Edwards
Girls 2nd XI v Claire's Court
Last Wednesday Shiplake 2nd XI went to Claire’s Court to play their first game of the season. With most of the girls never having played hockey before they were excited to give it a go. The game started with Shiplake having the first centre pass they started strong. In the first half Claire’s Court scored but Shiplake didn’t let this destroy their confidence. With excellent saves from Izzy in goal they kept the score at 1-0. Shiplake carried on, pushing the ball up to their half with accurate passes from Amelia and Hannah Sexton they managed to score. With strong defence from Katie, Jessie and Ruby they manage to defend many goals. However in the last quarter Claire’s Court had two short corners and managed to score making the overall score 3 - 1. This was a great first game and everyone kept up the spirits and the girls played excellently. Player of the match went to Sophia Hahn.
Report provided by 2nd XI Captain Ella Roullier
