Shipston U15s triumph on Derbyshire tour

Shipston U15 tours are things of legend and this year’s did not disappoint! Our journey to Mount Cook Adventure Centre was blessedly swift and the location did not disappoint. Great staff and facility, well stocked bar (at least at the beginning of the weekend) and lots of opportunity for team building, bonding and enjoyment.

Saturday’s activities included high ropes (good to see many of those who don’t like heights facing their fears and joining in), archery (including shooting a turkey?!) and team building (including basic pyrotechnics).

Food was good and camaraderie was great, even at 2.30am. Madness! Oh yes that’s right even Madness medlies!

Saturday evening saw worthy winners for this season
Coaches Player of the Year - Archie Wood (runners up Zak Cooper and Declan Ingram) and Players’ Player of the Year - Henry McCarthy (runners up Charlie Dews and Joe Painter)

Then Kangaroo Court, Guess Who and the epic rap battle (what goes on tour stays on tour ;))

And then to Sunday and a trip to Burton RFC for what we thought was a three way header with them and Newcastle. As with many things in life what we think is going to happen and what actually happens can be very different. And so we found ourselves playing Syston RFC and East Bergholt High School! The match was played on river ground and it was very, very wet. We could have also played Burton but they declined after they had two tough games against the same opposition we faced.

Syston RFC
The Shipston boys were on the charge from the outset and were quickly challenging the try line. Devon made a searching run, Jonno drove play over the line and we ended up with a scrum on their 5 yd line. Shipston won it beginning a trend of dominance in the scrum. The ball spun out and Matt Squance got us off the mark with a super try taking three opposition players with him. 0-5
Play worked up and down the field before Ilyas broke free running in a brilliant individual try from the halfway line on the wide outside to make the score 0-10

Shipston’s defence was solid and Arlie, Squancy and Sam all tackled like demons.
Shipston found themselves defending on their own 5yd line. Syston had the throw in and won it. Shipston competed and got turnover ball. George Hendy, leading so intelligently on the field throughout both games today, spun it wide. Henry out on the wing didn’t need a second invitation and flew down the field to score. 0-15. George had a tough time from the kicking tee, it was impossibly difficult to kick on a saturated surface.

Great result 0-15

East Bergholt School
This touring side from Colchester were well organised and loved to pass the ball. They provided some good opposition. Shipston kept the pressure on and moved forward. East Bergholt kept moving the ball out and we kept winning the ball and driving forward. It was really competitive, but Shipston looked unphased and kept working each play. The pressure they applied in defence and their scrum dominance were both impressive.

As with many of the more competitive games you stop seeing individual players and see the strength of every player in the team come to the fore, from Alex at full back taking a high ball under pressure and then making 20yds to Archie as flanker tackling like his life depended on it; the whole team got stuck in. The things that worked best were when the team made their plays and individuals played their designated part. Very impressive and great coached behaviour.

The boys were on top of the opposition. Every time they spun the ball out we drifted our defence and had it covered. While we could have been faster at the breakdown we kept winning the ball.

Eventually the boys diligence paid off and George Hendy took a quick ball, passing the ball out. Charlie Dews made ground in heavy traffic and from the breakdown the ball went to Henry who was not going to be stopped. George H then slotted a lovely conversion to make the score 0-7. Fitting that the captain scored the final points of the day. He played really well today and deserved man of the matches.

Thank you so much to the Dews for organising an awesome tour. And to our fantastic coaching team; Pete D, Rob and Pete L. We are grateful to you all, you make us all very proud of what our boys achieve and how they do it (kangaroo court aside!).

Misdemeanours (ready for next year!)

Zac and Harry. Failing to wear club dress after match, even with broken bones.