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Please see below for recent Rugby reports.

29 November 2023

Congratulations to all the teams playing both home and away to Reading Blue Coat over the weekend, as SPS Rugby Club completed a clean sweep of victories. The 1st XV put in a very good performance during their opening thirty-five minutes, scoring five unanswered tries, and although they could not quite repeat that level of rugby during the second half, they managed to cross the try line on two more occasions to win convincingly by 43-0. The U15 A and B teams were the only other SPS teams playing away, with the U15 A’s putting in a strong performance to ensure that they came out on top by 14-0. The B team completed the clean sweep of away wins with a comfortable win of 55 – 21 in a game that was full of attacking flair. At home, the U16 A’s won by 32 – 5 whilst the U14 A’s and B’s also won convincingly by 50 – 5 and 52 – 14 respectively.

The four other matches taking place at home were against Fulham Boys School. Our 3rd XV, having been given the opportunity to play on the 1st XV pitch for the first time this term, took on FBS’ 1st XV and were very much looking forward to their match. By all accounts, it was an evenly contested game which was eventually won by SPS 26 – 21. The U16 B’s put in an excellent performance to beat the FBS U16 A team by 33 – 5. Unfortunately, our remaining two matches resulted in defeats for both the U14 C and U15 C’s who were up against FBS A/B teams, but valiant efforts were made by both teams given the strength of the opposition.

All in all, a really enjoyable weekend of rugby was played in a fantastic spirit by SPS, RBCS and FBS. Thank you to all the staff and boys involved.

Report written by Andy Maguire, Head of Rugby

15 November 2023

The wonderful thing about playing a home and away fixture against a school is that you get the opportunity to put right the result if you previously came off second best, and that’s exactly what the U15 A team did having lost at Eton away earlier in the season. Mr Harrison’s team were very much up for the game and, after preparing well throughout the week, put in an excellent performance to win the game 24-12. Both the U15 B and U15 C teams followed suit and put in two strong performances to win their respective games as well.

Of course, the opportunity for redemption is necessarily accompanied by the threat of a second defeat, and unfortunately, that’s what happened to the 1st XV yesterday. Despite the result, Saturday’s return game against Eton was by far the team’s best performance of the season. The game was on a knife-edge at 14 – 13 going into the last two minutes of the game and could have gone either way, with a late Eton score ultimately putting the game out of reach for the SPS boys. Most importantly, the difference in Saturday’s performance compared to the away performance earlier in the season was night and day, and to go the distance with a very strong unbeaten Eton 1st XV is something the boys can be very proud of.

However, it was a different story for the 2nd XV as they magnificently turned their away loss right round and earned an excellent win against Eton, leaving the pitch as victors by 20 – 10. Well done also to the 3rd XV who were soundly beaten in the away leg but were determined to cut the scoreline down and managed to do just that after a fine performance.
Sadly, for the U16’s A team who won the first fixture at SPS very comfortably, their fortunes were reversed at Eton, and they came off the pitch after a physical encounter having lost 34-21. The B team, who came very close to winning their home tie against Eton, unfortunately, couldn’t quite match that performance away and lost by 34-7.

Finally, the well-oiled machine of the U14 A’s continued to go up seamlessly through the gears, completing the double home and away this year against Eton. This is an outstanding achievement and thoroughly well-deserved by Mr Van Vuuren’s team. There were also strong wins for the D and E teams, a draw for the B team, and a narrow loss for the C team.
All in all, another competitive weekend of rugby was played in a fantastic spirit on a rare rain-free sunny afternoon in November. Thank you to all the staff and boys involved and we now look forward to our block fixture against Whitgift next Saturday.