Friday 26 November – Brackenfield U11 Rugby Cup

On Friday, 11 members of the U11 Rugby team made their way to Knaresborough Rugby Club to take part in the 8 team tournament, to mark the culmination of the rugby season. After a very successful season and a successful festival there the week prior, hopes were high that we would come away with some positive results. It was a cold but dry afternoon which lent itself nicely to the attack minded rugby that we wanted to play.

Our first game against Bradford Grammar was a tightly contested affair with both teams getting used to the condensed rules and pitch dimensions, but nevertheless we came away with a well-deserved 3-2 victory. This was followed by a similar style game against Brackenfield, where we managed to pull away late in the game, notching up a 4-1 win. Next up was Moorlands, which for me was our proudest moment of the afternoon. The team started off slow, letting one of their players dance and weave his way through our defence on multiple occasions and before long we were 4-0 down staring at a near impossible come back. All season long, Mr. Battams and I have discussed resilience and perseverance with the children and why it’s important to not give up when things aren’t going our way and if there was ever a time to heed those words, it was now. With 5 minutes left, the squad rose to the challenge of mounting a comeback and by the time the final whistle blew, they had staged a remarkable return, snatching a 4-4 draw, to keep our hopes alive for a tournament victory. It truly felt like a turning point for the afternoon.
With the wind in our sails, our next three games saw us play the best attacking rugby of our season, with some sumptuous offloading, excellent passing along the line and some ferocious tackling giving us  6-1, 7-2 and 5-1 victories against Highfield, Silcoates and Westville respectively.
This took us to our final game of the tournament against Gateways, who themselves had played some excellent rugby, and were also in with a chance to take home the silverware. A win or draw for Richmond House would guarantee victory. Again, a slightly slow start saw us go behind early on, but composing themselves, the team rallied to score 4 unanswered tries to take the final game of the tournament 4-1 (including a hat trick from William). Having played 7 games in total, winning 6 and drawing once (and as the sole undefeated team on the day), Richmond House took home the U11 trophy. A tremendous feat and a perfect way to cap off a brilliant season of rugby.