Rugby at School

So for those of you who did not get to read the last post i put up about my first rugby training session i finished it by saying that i did not play club rugby again until i was 15.

I did however play school rugby from year 7 all the way until i left school in year 11.

The school i went to was Bennett Memorial in Tunbridge Wells. And it is fair to say that it was not a rugby school.

But of course we did rugby in our PE lessons and there was a rugby club on a Tuesday lunch time.

As a rugby team we played in the inter schools leagues and went to a number of tournaments over the years i was at the school. Most of these years where pretty poor in terms of results, that was until we got into year 10/11, that was the couple of years we started to perform as a team and get some good results, I had recently joined Sevenoaks RFC along with a handful of other players from the school team and we also had a good boost in numbers as people where seemingly getting fed up with playing football and wanted to do something else. It was also the time that England where dominating world rugby and a certain Jonny Wilkinson was the biggest name in sport at that time, i can remember practising kicking for hours with friends all trying to copy his style of kick.

So we had a good session in year 10 playing so good games and running teams that had previously beaten us by a big margin a lot closer. A view of us even got asked to play for the year above which was exciting.

But it was year 11 that really was great for us as a team, the view of us that played club rugby outside school had improved a lot and the other players around us had now been with the team a while and it all seemed to work really well.

The game that sticks out for me and i will most likely remember for ever is the game against out closet rivals St Gregs School, we had not beaten them ever and each year we got closer and closer.

The reason this game was important was that it was also going to be the last game we played as a team, some of us where moving schools and others where going off to work after our exams, we wanted to get the win the team deserved.

I remember that season we had always started well but never got complacent we would score and then say "nil nil still nil nil" just to try and refocus our minds for the kick off.

I started at 10 and kicked off, within minutes we had scored, a break away try under the posts by out back row Tim Nash. Number 12 Keith McCormack converted the try and we where up and running. St Greg's where a tough team they had a number of club players that played at the same club as me so i new that it was not going to be easy.

St Greg's where the next to score in the first half, a try down the right had side, conversion was missed so we where still in front by 2 going into the second half.

Second half was all a bit of a blur St Greg's scored first in the second half but again missed the conversion putting them ahead by 3 we then scored again under the posts Gareth Jones out tight head prop going over from close range. We are ahead by 4. St Greg's score again with 10 minutes to go but again miss the wide conversion.

So it was last 10 minutes and we needed to score. We always had a plan that a drop goal in these situations would be the best option.

So form the Kick Off we managed to force a knock on and win the scrum giving us possession, we then had to work our way down the field into a position to execute the drop kick.

So we went to it our forwards carrying the ball up and up then scrum half Toby Doughty makes a break from the base of the ruck and gets free. Supported by Nash they make there way up to the St Greg's 22, Ball is recycled and sent back to McCormack who drop kicks of the right foot and though the posts.

We now had to get back and receive the kick off and keep the ball for the next 5 minutes, it felt like an age going from phases to phase wrestling to keep the ball, suddenly i here "thats time" from the ref i looked a Toby "ball ball" i called, i caught the ball and kicked it off the pitch. Final whistle goes and we win. It was a great feeling finally we had beaten them.