U13Bs record thrilling draw and disappointing loss in triangular fixture
By Arthur Hanna
The Hampton rugby players woke up on the 4th of October knowing that they were about to make the 40 minute drive to Reigate Grammar School to play them and St George’s.
Hampton arrived slightly late and quickly got changed into boots, took their tracksuits off and put their mouthguards in ready to take on these two matches. The A team and the B team split up into their teams and went through their respective warm-ups while RGS and St George’s played against each other.
St George’s
Hampton walked onto the field and knew that if they won the toss, they would kick. Captain Ollie Jones ended up winning the toss and as they had previously decided, Hampton chose to kick.
The match began with Hampton on the back foot as St George’s capitalised on some early pressure to take the lead, and to make matters worse for Hampton, their captain and scrum-half Jones went off with a knock to the head. This meant vice-captain Finn Green took the responsibility of captain and Arthur Hanna switched into scrumhalf ensuring Hampton kept a quick speed of ball. Despite this setback, Hampton responded quickly to level the match at 5-5. St George’s then took advantage of Hampton’s poor tackling to take control of the match and despite some nice runs from Hampton’s lock Joshin Fenwick, St George’s were just too much for Hampton and the result was 55-15. A fair result on the whole.
Reigate Grammar School
Hampton knew that they had to keep their head up and not let the previous result shake them up. Again, Hampton won the toss, however this time, chose to receive. They started strongly and were the first to make a mark on the match. 5-0. RGS then responded with strong pressure in Hampton’s half and scored three tries in quick succession to undo Hampton’s strong start. However, in the final play of the half, Hampton used strong carries to get close to the RGS line and scored. This brought the match to half time. 10-15.
Hampton picked up from where they left off in the second half with constant pressure on the RGS line. However, Hampton couldn’t convert this pressure into points. RGS knew they were still in control of the game and made sure of this with three quick tries to make Hampton lose hope. 10-25. In the final 10 minutes, Hampton was boosted by Jones returning to the pitch and brilliant runs from the forwards, including Jia Wen Xie and, in the backs, including Yuchen Liu and Akshaj Anand brought the game to within 1 try. 20-25. This dramatic match came to its final play and Hampton had possession of the ball but were stuck around halfway with no real sign of moving from that position. That was until Yuchen Liu broke through and looked to have no support and was about to be tacked, until Ollie Jones came on his shoulder and the ball was offloaded to him. Ollie dived into the corner and then Hampton roared with delight, with the team rushing over to congratulate the players who had clawed back an unthinkable margin to salvage a draw.
Overall, it was a significant improvement from the previous match with many positives to take away. The U13’Bs next match is away to Halliford on the 11th of October where the team will look for their first win of the season.
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