Last weekend saw our rugby teams take on our local rivals Reading Blue Coat School which consisted of a mixture of results with three of our teams coming home with wins and four teams dropping short but still giving 100% as always.
2nd XV v Reading Blue Coat School
On Saturday 14 September the 2nd XV faced Reading Blue Coat School. It was the first game of the season for the 2nd team with our newly formed squad, and everyone wanted to win, especially as it was against Reading Blue Coat School. We knew it would be a tough match especially as the visitors had just been on tour and had much more experience working as a team.
The game started well with solid defence from the Shiplake boys and some good runs by E Taylor, A White and C Ambrose-McCormack. We maintained our intensity and kept Reading Blue Coat in their own half for the first 10 mins. A well-planned line out from the visitors led to a break which resulted in them scoring. We regrouped and started again. Some excellent kicking under-pressure from A Arnold led to R Abery making a fantastic break down the right wing, being tackled just short of the line. We capitalised on this and set up forward pods to try and make some meters and get over the line, however, a slippery ball led to a knock-on.
Reading Blue Coat continued to remain strong but we retained our intensity, however, some missed tackles led to more tries being conceded. Overall, not the result we were hoping for, but some good lessons learnt which we will take into this Saturday's match, at home against Caterham. Man of the match goes to C Ambrose-McCormack
Report by H Geyton
U15A Rugby v Reading Blue Coat School
What a lovely, bright and sunny day for what is considered our biggest game of the season. Everyone in our team was pumped up and ready for this game.The atmosphere in the changing room before the match was great, we all wanted to win and we knew if we performed well as a team we would have a good chance. The game kicked off with Shiplake kicking the ball to the opposition. The first 15 minutes of the game was very tight! Our line speed and pressure made Blue Coat’s attack limited. During this progression, with great support at the breakdown, we managed to push over the line with O Rouiller touching down! 7-0 Shiplake.
Reading Blue Coats came back strongly and scored, but importantly for us missed the conversion. Later in the first half a useful cross-kick was collected by R Logan who crossed the line to leave Shiplake 12- 5 ahead at half- time.
The second half was similarly competitive and we managed to go over their line after a strong crash ball by R O’Keeffe, leaving the score 19-5 to Shiplake. Blue Coat are a strong and resilient team and came back to score two tries with one conversion, 19-17. The pressure was intense and we managed to respond well to their second try with a well worked forwards try rounded off by F Wilson 26-17. They would not give up and carried on trying to break us down. We defended well but in the last 30 seconds they went over and converted to leave the final score of 26- 24 to Shiplake! What a day!
Overall, as a team we won because we said together at the start of the game, do not worry about the outcome, if you play your part well, the outcome will be positive. Well played boys and lets bring that energy into our next game at Caterham!
Report by S Gillen
U15B Rugby v Reading Blue Coat School
On Saturday the 14 of September the Shiplake U15B team played Reading Blue Coat School. We went into the game knowing it was going to be tough as we had lost 44-5 last year. Nevertheless, we kicked off with a positive mindset and began to show Blue Coat how much we had improved over the previous year. The first half saw great tackles by J Sommerville, good runs from M Patterson and overall good support and rucking from the whole team. At the end of the first half we were up 19-5. The second half also had brilliant tries from H Doyle, D Henson, L Swinboure-Johnson with great conversions made by J Durkan. The final score was 29-10 to Shiplake. We look forward to our next game against Caterham School, well played lads!
Report by L Byca
U14A Rugby v Reading Blue Coat School
This was going to be a tough second match of the season following on from Windsor Boys. The U14As had a strong week of training looking at defensive lines and handling, which was tested from the start by Reading Blue Coat. Shiplake started the match on the back foot, however all the players put in an impressive defensive performance for the first ten minutes, hardly missing a tackle. Shiplake helped by strong defense, turned over possession and dominated the end of the first half scoring two tries in quick succession. The start of the second half was like the first and required some real determination to hold off the Blue Coat attack. Both teams manages to get a try in the second half, meaning the match finished 19-7 to Shiplake. This was an impressive home performance continuing the winning start to the season.
U14B Rugby v Reading Blue Coat School
Our second match of the season was at home against Reading Blue Coat School. It was an exciting fixture between two evenly matched teams, but the visitors came out on top as we conceded two tries in the first five minutes and couldn’t quite come back despite a valiant effort by the team. Particular stand out performances were from B Brooks who scored both our tries and Man of the Match went to B Watkins. There was a great spirit in the team, with very few tackles missed, some great kicking and some awesome runs. It looks promising for the season ahead! Special thanks to Mr Brown for refereeing the match. Final score 10-24.
Report by T Lebeau (Captain)
U13A v Caldicott School
On Wednesday 11th of September the U13A team travelled to Caldicott School. It was a good match up with both teams at a pretty similar level. The first half saw a lot of scrums which the forwards handled very well. Two tries came for Caldicott but just before half time L Spence ran in to score our first try and this began the comeback. In the second half there were some lovely ball handling skills on show and some amazing running from S Mealing, A steel and H Johnston. We were also winning a lot of turnover ball and that was mainly thanks to A Malcolm with some great rucking. That all contributed to the second try for Shiplake scored by S Mealing who ran through numerous players to get to the line. With 5 minutes to go A Steel broke through the Caldicott defense and ran as fast as he could and put the ball down to win the match. We were all shattered but delighted.
Reported by Z Loyd
U13B v Beacon School & Caldicott School
The first match of the season was against Beacon School and the team started magnificently scoring straight from the kick off! This set the tone for the rest of the match with tries being scored by W Jennings, H Kerrison and N Rodgers with the final score being 8-1. The second match was against Caldicott and this was a much more intense game but the team came through 3-2 to record our second win of the day. Great performances were had by J Scanlon and C Davey who scored the winning try. Overall, a fantastic start to the season!
Reported by Mr P Jones
U13A Epsom Tournament
The first game was against Reading Blue Coat and this was a tough match and although we made a good start, we could not get past their well organised defence. Tries either side of half time saw Reading Blue Coat take a lead and unfortunately we could not get back in the game and the final score was 5.0. The next match was against Epsom College and a slow start saw Shiplake make some early mistakes and Epsom capitalised on this and scored 2 tries. At half time we re-organised and came back strongly scoring a couple of tries but unfortunately the game finished 3-2. Our last game was against Ewell Castle and we finally made a quick start scoring first but concentration once again slipped and a physically robust Ewell Castle took their opportunities. Despite us never being out of the game we narrowly lost but learnt some very valuable lessons particularly focussed towards what our core values are as a team and something we look forward to building on!
Reported by Mr P Jones
U12A Epsom Tournament
This was the first chance for the Under 12s to represent the school and they certainly did not disappoint with their enthusiasm. Our first match was against Reading Blue Coat and a few small errors and a lack of teamwork cost us and although Reading Blue Coat scored a few unanswered tries, the score certainly flattered them and in many ways we matched them for skills but lacked some of their accuracy. The next match against Epsom College reflected a similar story and we struggled against a physical team but there was clearly progress being made and lessons being learnt. Our final match against Ewell Castle was fantastic the team defended and played so well and played some great rugby. At half time we were 2-0 ahead and in with a sniff of our first victory of the season. Ewell Castle responded but Shiplake held their nerve and we recorded our first win of the season 3-2.
Reported by Mr N Brown
U12 v Gillotts School Touch Games
With the ground being very hard at Gillotts the decision was taken to change the matches to a touch tournament and Shiplake split into 3 even teams against the two that Gillotts fielded. All matches were very even with both teams playing some fantastic rugby for so early on the season. The overall results were not that important but all teams scored lots of tries and enjoyed the experience greatly. These fixtures have not set up our annual FNL match in November perfectly and the boys will now be working hard towards this.
Reported by Mr N Brown
Other Results
1st XV Lost 6-38 v Reading Blue Coat School
U14C Lost 22-34 v Reading Blue Coat School
