Lower School Rugby season reports:

Under 13 by Harvey Hendry:
The coaches and I have been hugely proud of all the boys’ effort on the rugby pitch. We have played some tough games against some big rugby schools that have a massive pool of boys to select from as opposed to our 20.
Our best match was against Abingdon where it came right down to the final play when we plumaged over into the corner of their try line, winning 17-12.
We also took part in the Belmont Rugby Festival coming out with a good result and getting into the semi-final.
We had a good game against Gillotts at the Friday Night Lights where we had the privilege of playing on the first team pitch with the support of most of Shiplake College
Our hope is to improve our skills and working as a team next year where we also will have a much bigger selection of boys to choose from and we hope to come out with better results.
Special mentions go to Cameron Fisher whose effort rates are really high; Els Frisby for his spatial awareness and constant support; Milo McMillan for fighting back well after receiving concussion and a very big thank you to Mr Brown who has lead us all the way and Mr Kersey’s great training programme.
The under 12s have enjoyed a successful, winning season this year and began in fantastic form with 4 straight wins against Oratory School (26-24), Licensed Victuallers' School (25-10), Abingdon School (36-5) and Abingdon Prep school(35-14).


Awards:
Player of the Season - Harvey Hendry
Most Improved Forward - Tom Hallam
Most Improved Back - Lewis Bishop


Under 12 by Robbie Cartwright:
There was also new talent emerging from the group of year 7s. A good example of this is Matty Fitzgerald. Matty seemed to enjoy using his pace and strength from the first match against Oratory where he was able to find space from quick ball that came from Luke Tremayne and Finn Wallace. Other games showed the importance of quick ball through the hands of the backs, as Matty and Tomas Gorringe capitalised on the service given by Luke, Morgan Taylor, Matt Dalrymple and Finn. Tomas scored 5 tries and Matty scored 12 tries and kicked 2 successful conversions. This meant that in his first season of rugby, Matty scored 62 points, which is excellent. Matthew Dalrymple also scored a very good 34 points with some excellent conversion kicking.
The main focus of this year’s under 12 performance, however, was the team effort. The best game that we played was undoubtedly the 15-15 draw against Gillot’s school under the Friday Night Lights at Henley Hawks rugby club. The game was tight and this meant that it required a superb effort from the whole team and especially the forwards to win and successfully recycle the ball. Harrison Richards, Rafe Koser, Josh O’Hare and Thomas Howlett deserve a special mention for their selfless attitude during their forward play in this match and others. It is not possible to name all players that had a positive contribution on the team as all of those included in the squad really did. There is a lot to look forward to in the years to come and we look forward to going from strength to strength. Thanks to Mr Brownley, Mr Jones, Tom Waldron and Mr Brown for all their help this season.

Awards:

Players of the Season - Robbie Cartwright and Matty Fitzgerald
Most Improved Forward - Tom Hallam
Most Improved Back - Lewis Bishop