The St Mary’s Year 7 Boys Rugby team played in a friendly fixture against Churchill Community College on Thursday afternoon. Due to student illness and injury the team was 1 short of a full side meaning that the 9 players were forced to play the full 40 minutes of rugby without substitutes. The boys responded brilliantly however, giving it their all both in attack and defence.

St Mary’s put together some nice attacks as the game went on, with Jarno Ambelez and Fred Eltringham showing some excellent agility to dodgy several tackles. Darragh O’Hare and Peidar Amiramin had a different method of moving the ball, choosing to go headlong in to the Churchill defence and making good ground each time they carried the ball. Alsharif Almahdi also got his hands on the ball, after it was spilled by the Churchill attackers, and managed to break clear for a fine individual try. The boys struggled to tackle the Churchill attack early on but improved greatly as the game progressed, with captain Bobby Ramsey leading from the front both tackling and rucking.

Player of the Day: Lewis Burd – showed excellent power when carrying the ball and made tackle after tackle in defence. Lewis also showed excellent sportsmanship both during and after the game.

The Team: Daragh O’Hare, Bobby Ramsey, Niall Boothroyd, Fred Eltringham, Jarno Ambelez,  Joseph McStay, Peidar Amiramin, Lewis Burd, Alsharif Almahdi.

The boys played well despite being short on substitutes and all worked as hard as they could up until the final whistle. We look forward to welcoming Churchill to St Mary’s for the return fixture after Easter.