Rugby News – Hard work pays dividends in Malvern fixtures

October 17, 2016

rugbyThe past week saw plenty of fixtures across the board for the Monmouth rugby teams, with excellent results emerging from the most successful block fixture yet.

In midweek, the U12 and U13 Bs took on Christ College Brecon, with the U12s winning 20 points to 10 despite the U13s losing in a tightly contested game.

Saturday saw the first set of block fixtures in recent times against Malvern College, with only the U14 As and U15 As losing in a hugely promising set of results against a rapidly growing rugby outfit. There were wins for the U14 Bs and both U15 Bs and Cs, with the u15 Cs producing an outstanding display to defeat their opponents by 65 points. Once again, the U16s shone with the As and Bs winning 26-7 and 26-14 respectively in what has been an exemplary half-term of rugby for the 5th form.

After a disappointing set of results against Tommie’s, the senior teams rebounded in fine fashion, with the 3rds dominating the opponents by 44 points to nil and the 2nd team producing a breath-taking display of attacking rugby to win 67-5. For the 1st XV, Saturday posed a ‘make or break’-type of game, with morale needing a boost ahead of the fixtures against Crawshays Welsh XV this Tuesday and Oakham School in the Champions Trophy next half-term. After a nervy start which saw Monmouth two tries down, Monmouth raced back through the brilliance of Asanji, who scored a brace of tries, and Sebastian, who defied the stereotype of a front-five forward to outpace Malvern’s edge defence before dummying their fullback on his way to the try-line. However, Dan was unable to convert and left the game delicately balanced 18 points to 16 going into the final minutes. However, disciplined defence kept Malvern in their own 22 before Alexi thundered through the defence to dot down in the final play of the game which left the score at 23-16 to Monmouth.

These results are a promising indication of the level of effort the boys put in when training, a necessity when the fixtures increase in difficulty next half-term, and have earned them a well-deserved rest over the October half-term.

Many thanks to Rui from Form III who took the excellent pictures which have been used for this article.