Sports Report: Autumn Term Week 12

U11A v Winterfold

There was a great sense of excitement and anticipation amongst the 47 girls and boys from Years Five and Six who travelled to Winterfold School to play their counterparts at their respective sports of hockey and rugby on Wednesday afternoon.

The U11 A-team were keen to finish on a high with a win from their final rugby match for St Alban’s, before the focus switches to football next term. They started where they left off the week before, with a fast start to the match which led to St Alban’s scoring the opening try. Some great offloads, strong ball carrying, and winding runs from everyone on the team resulted in them scoring three more tries, before Winterfold scored a good try of their own to leave the score 4-1 at half time. After a quick team talk during the break about not getting carried away and concentrating on doing the basic skills well, the boys demonstrated great teamwork to continue scoring some well-worked team tries. With Winterfold only having seven players and St Alban’s having ten, it meant that the boys had to take their turns off the pitch. This proved to be a good opportunity for all of the boys to play in different positions and areas on the pitch, and also to have a quick break before returning to play, which worked well given the very cold and wet conditions. The boys played really well together as a team and scored so frequently that it soon became hard to keep track of the score! However, they were desperate to work it out after the match and, after some tallying up on the coach, the final score was agreed to be 11-2 to King’s St Alban’s, with four tries apiece from Rook and Monty, according to the boys, and two further tries from Francis, along with a powerful try from Theo in the last play of the game.

Ethan, Tom, Francis, Henry, Theo, Otto, Rook, Monty, Joel and TJ all played some excellent rugby and represented the School extremely well. Their coach has been very impressed with all of these boys’ effort, determination and teamwork in the short amount of time that he has been able to coach them, and knows that they all have the ability to continue playing high quality rugby as they get older.

Travelling together on the coach with the girls definitely added to the atmosphere, and also helped to make the afternoon a really enjoyable end to a very positive and successful term of rugby for all of the boys from St Alban’s who have represented this team, and the School, so well over the past few months. We are now excited about the opportunities for all of the Year Six boys to develop their sporting, teamwork and leadership skills further after Christmas, when they move to playing football in the Spring Term.

U10A v Winterfold

The U10A team was hit with illness on Wednesday afternoon, meaning that three of the boys were off school and unable to play. This didn’t effect the other boys’ enthusiasm and willingness to get fully stuck in and give it their all. Archie B once again demonstrated just how quick he is, getting the ball on a number of occasions and breaking the opposition defence to score. Will B was brilliant in both attack and defence: his tackle technique has shown amazing progress from September and he is starting to offload the ball at the perfect time. Uriah wasn’t feeling 100%, but played the entirety of the match and made some fantastic tackles in the second half. Overall, it has been an impressive rugby term and all 16 of the Year Five boys have made significant progress and should be thoroughly proud of themselves.

U10/11 B v Winterfold

The team arrived in good spirits for a cold afternoon at Winterfold. The game was very back and forth, with great running and defensive sets from both sides. It was rounded off with some excellent interplay, leading to one of the best tries of the day! It is great to see the progress that all of the boys in this squad have made since September, with an excellent display of rugby at a very cold away day. This was a great last fixture and we look forward to seeing their further development in the football term.

U11/U10 Hockey v Winterfold House

It was a great to see these girls play so well together as a mixed team. Their play was a little narrow to begin with but, once Lily E got the ball in defence and sent it wide, it opened the pitch up for some good running hockey. Ivy and Izzy made some excellent runs with the ball and Izzy crossed it into the ‘D’ on a number of occasions.  Lily G kept us in the game with some strong saves; at one point she was bombarded with shots but still managed to clear the ball off the back line. Shreya was tenacious with her tackles in the midfield, and chased the ball endlessly. Lottie S played confidently in an attacking position, and we saw her shooting from the top of the ‘D’ and scoring two good goals. Izzy R also scored  a goal, which brought us a 3-1 win.

U11A v Winterfold House

What a game! The match was filled with end-to-end play, with all our players having to work hard. It was great to see how well Laura and Ellie play together in defence, always making sure one came up while the other covered from the back. Phoebe stepped up again for us in goal, and made an excellent save in the last minutes of the game. Helena showed some great speed on the ball, and put their defence under pressure a number of times. Lottie F had a very near miss on goal with an aerial shot and Millie finished her season on a high, scoring two excellent goals to gain us the win.