29 November U10 Boys’ House Rugby Matches – Warriors
Score: St George’s 45 – 40 St Philip’s
Player of the Match: Nirvan Agrawal
A brilliant House Rugby match finished the season off for the U10s with a tense battle between red and green. The progress the players have made over the term has been brilliant moving from non-contact/touch Rugby to a game with tackling. This has shown the progress pupils have made which is a credit to the effort they have put in.
St Philip’s started on fire with Zail and Rayyan being strong runners and scoring tries for their team. They were supported by a committed defence from Nirvan and Sami. St George’s needed a response after going a few tries down and they got this from Aaryan, Miles, and Ismaeel who drove forward with venom to bring their green army back into the game.
The game continued passing between red and green with Otis scoring a brilliant try, charging the length of the pitch to score and bring St George’s within a couple of tries of St Philip’s. Heading into the final few moments of the game a fantastic try scored by St George’s got them ahead for the first time in the game and they heroically held onto this with some strong tackling from Yang and Miles keeping the Philip’s attack away from the try line. A brilliant finish to a very progressive term of Rugby for the U10s.
Mr Gregory
29 November U10 Boys’ House Rugby Matches – Wasps
Score: St George’s 30 – 25 St Philip’s
Player of the Match: Noah Olatayo-Moses
Despite the score line, everyone was a winner today. The nature in which the game was played was a testament to the attitude and commitment of each player. Each House played with the aggression and tenacity to make hard tackles and break through lines of play in collaboration with terrific sportsmanship and respect for each other. Both teams implemented a season’s worth of learning into their performance which resulted in some outstanding Rugby. St George’s managed to attack into space a little more effectively which gave them the slight edge. Other than that, this game was very evenly matched. It has been a pleasure to see these players develop and grow over the last 12 weeks.
Mr Melia
U10 Boys’ House Match – Chiefs
Score: St George’s 10-6 St Philip’s
Player of the Match: William Nicholson
What a great way to finish our rugby season! The boys played really well, adapting to the difficult conditions fantastically. Both teams played in a fantastic spirit and were a credit to their House. In the end the difference was the fantastic tackling of William Nicholson, Ari Rupal and Hassan Riaz. These 3 hunted down the St Philip’s boys and made defence a form of attack! Both sides had willing runners with Sam Sapey and Vidur Doger prominent for St Philip’s and Xander Hawley, Rohan Sharu for St George’s. Well done all a great game!
Mr Protherough
30 November U9 Boys’ House Rugby Matches – Wasps
Score: St Philip’s 45 – 45 St George’s
Player of the Match: Jasper Neeson and Rohan Uppal
A brilliant House Rugby game to finish off the season for the U9 players with their first ever contact game of Rugby. Due to COVID regulations in the past, this was the first time tackling could be involved in the game. Going into the ‘unknown,’ with tackling present, there was an uncertainty as to how well the players would cope but they were absolutely phenomenal. They all put their bodies on the line and showed commitment and determination to tackle the ball carrier.
In terms of the game, St Philip’s flew out of the blocks scoring some tries quickly with Noah, Umar, and Rayan all bursting over the try line. St George’s responded quickly with Jasper, Freddie, and James bundling over the try line. Going into the last third of the game St George’s were three tries down but quickly responded with Loic and Jasper making some driving runs to get over the line. St Philip’s responded with a well finished try by Umar. With one try ahead there was another jinking run by Freddie who offloaded to Loic who then passed to Jasper to bring the scores level. Into the last play St Philip’s found themselves with space on the left wing but Jasper heroically drove his opponent into touch to bring the game to a close and a draw in the battle between red and green. A great start for the U9s in their contact Rugby with Aydin, Jasper, and Rohan showing a hunger to tackle their opponent and bring them to the ground. All in all, a great season for the U9s with great progress throughout the first term.
Mr Gregory
30 November U9 Boys’ House Rugby Matches – Chiefs
Score: St Philip’s 30 – 25 St George’s
Player of the Match: Junius Zhao
What a game! The fear has been that, due to the pandemic, Year 4 have “missed” a season of contact Rugby. With tackling being an integral part of the game would this impact their development and understanding of the game? Simple answer – No! Today’s match highlighted the understanding, progress and determination the Year 4s have made this year. This was a game filled with terrific tackling, lines of running, support play and positional play. St George’s played the stronger attacking Rugby, keeping the ball alive with good offloads and constant support play, however, they struggled to bring down the strong runners from the St Phillips side. Overall, this was a superb game which could have gone either way at any moment and gave all the boys a chance to really demonstrate what they had in their locker!
Mr Melia
30 November U9 Boys’ House Rugby Matches – Warriors
Score: St George’s 50-20 St Philip’s
Player of the Match: James Lawson Bennett
It was great to see all the boys enjoying their first taste of a contact game of rugby against each other. Both teams acquitted themselves well with St George’s shading it thanks to the speed and running ability of James Lawson Bennett, Judah Hughes and Reece Rehman. What was encouraging for both groups teams was everybody tried to tackle, pass and support the ball. Well done all!
Mr Protherough
30 December U9A Girls’ Hockey v Solihull
Score: 4-0, 5-0
The A team started very positively in the first third, with several near misses at goal, but with constant attacking moves which saw Mischa B convert 2 goals . Defensively, the girls stayed focused and were able to easily re-distribute the ball back up the pitch.
The next third then saw the girls really start to implement some training moves, with super drives down the right wing by Arya P and finishing with a strong pass to the awaiting forwards, Mischa, Annabel M and Elle B, all converting into goals! The defensive part of the team Esther, Alayna L and Amadora R – Li also worked hard, making good tackles and passing the ball into space. The final score was 4-0.
With a quick reshuffle of positions Annabel made an excellent shot but was too far out of the area for the goal to count. However, she made a clever run down the left side beating three of the opposition to then give the perfect pass for Mischa to score. The Blue Coat School attack was relentless and the final score was 5-0. It was an emphatic win and a good display by some young talented hockey players. Super well done girls.
Mrs Potter
30 December U9B Girls’ Hockey v Solihull
Score: 6-0
The B team started their match with great enthusiasm and worked well together to form some good attacking moves. Susie B, Mia M and Ila J all created shots, but they were all just wide of the posts. The defensive Arya B, Anika M and Arya M were all very focused and made some good tackles and redistributed the ball into space. 0-0
The next two thirds then saw the Blue Coat team step up a gear and the goals started to flow with some great movement and passing by Mia Z for the forward to convert into goals. The final score for all three thirds was 6-0! Another display of some good hockey skills and training tactics implemented into their matches. Amazing work girls!
Mrs Potter
30 December U9C Girls’ Hockey v Solihull
Score: 1-0 1-1 0-1
Player of the Match: Lexi Higgs
A superb afternoon of Hockey, playing three different mini matches so the girls got to play lots of competitive Hockey. It was a fantastic experience for the girls as they all rotated round to play in different positions. Overall, the girls played well. They won one game, drew another, and lost one. There was good competition from Solihull, who made the games end to end. The BCS girls were confident on the ball but they lacked the ability to keep their shape. The Girls who were playing forward tended to be too deep and helped the defense out while girls who were playing on the left were moving over to the right. This lack of structure and shape to the game made it very crowded which resulted in the ball touching lots of feet! However, when told to move back into position and demonstrating a good level of space, the girls were able to move the ball confidently up the pitch and attempt to score! Well done girls!
Mrs Somerville
30 December U9D Girls’ Hockey v Solihull
Score: 1-0 1-0 0-1
Player of the Match: Destinee McKenzie
Today the U9s travelled to Solihull Prep School, where they played three mini matches, so a good opportunity to play lots of Hockey against different competition. While watching these matches, one word came to mind, PROGRESS! Seeing this group of girls develop this term has been a very proud moment as a teacher. They demonstrated excellent confidence on the ball, it was brilliant to see players using their reverse stick to control the ball while playing and running with the ball down the pitch. There were times where there was a lack of space and structure to their game but overall, I was really impressed with their performance. This is reflected in the results, winning two games 1-0 and losing one with a last-minute goal from Solihull 0-1. Well played girls.
Mrs Somerville
01 December U11A Girls’ Hockey v Winterfold (H)
Score: 3-0 Li Wan (2), Riah Bailey (1)
Player of the Match: Riah Bailey
Finishing a fantastic hockey season with a win was well deserved as these girls have been unbeaten all term. The weather had just started to deteriorate again but the team were not phased and from the start looked very impressive with Ria having a couple of shots that just went wide. With great attack coming down the right hand side from Riah, both Li and Lois were poised ready. Our first goal was a cracker from Li as everything we have trained for came together in a perfect penalty corner. Nush kept breaking down any chance of a Winterfold attack and we kept them on the back foot in their own half. When Beatrice was called to action she remained composed. Susie’s presence on the astro was felt as she glided past players swiftly but could not quite get the finish she was hoping for. The second half was cut very short as the freezing conditions continued with a further downpour of sleet and the Winterfold teacher requested we call a halt to the match. It was clear that Winterfold were not going to pose any threat to us and we finished our season on a clear win. Well done to all the girls who played, this has been a wonderful hockey term and it has been a pleasure watching you develop into beautiful hockey players!
Mrs Bennett
01 December U11B Girls’ Hockey v Winterfold (H)
Score: 1-0 Evangeline Ernest
Player of the Match: Rosa Lester
After several discussions about the weather, Winterfold finally agreed to play, helped by the slight halt to the heavy rain/sleet. So after a quick warm up the girls started well. Aadya was only called into action once and she pulled off a great save in the first half. Other than that it was never in doubt which team was on top. Anya was superb at carrying the ball wide and distributing it down the wing where she played in Mira and Evangeline who went on a lone run to score. After a brief time off, Avni came back fighting down the left side and showed the progress she has been making using her reverse stick. Yixian and Elaine dominated the centre of the astro and Winterfold struggled to get anytime on the ball. Rosa remained the calm head at the back and continued to pass the ball successfully to wide players to continue our attacks down the wing. Mira came close but the keeper saved it and Yashna carried the ball back into the shooting circle for another attempt but it was saved again and we had a corner. With the match progressing it was clear how much the girls had learnt over the term and how much they had developed in their positional knowledge. It would be great now if these children continue to play hockey outside of school and add to the strength and depth of hockey in the West Midlands.
Mrs Bennett
02 December U8 Boys’ House Rugby Matches
St Philip’s 45 – 30 St George’s
Players of the Match: Samson Isola and Kavidh Biswas
An enthralling House Rugby game brought the end of the Rugby season for the Year 3s who have shown great progress and development over the term. St Philip’s started the game on fire with Kavidh, Joshua, and Monty showing some forceful forward running to score tries for their team or create try scoring opportunities.
St George’s responded with Samson, Noah, and Tom running forward with pace and intent to score tries for the ‘Green Army’ with Noah diving over the try line in spectacular fashion. The game continued to flow at a great pace and be an end to end game with players taking the occasional time out to get their breath back. Ben scored a couple of great tries by being in a superb position to support the ball carrier and touch the ball over the line.
The determination of the players was shown with Kavidh on another of his mazy runs, through the opposition, for what looked an easy try. However, Samson sprinted the length of the pitch to touch him just before the try line in an heroic effort to force the turnover for St George’s. As the game came to a close, and the players reflected over their match tea, the conclusion was that it was a brilliant game with so much progress in players running forward with the ball and developing their support play.
St Philip’s were the victors on the day due to greater support given to the ball carrier, so giving themselves greater chance of receiving a pass once touched, but St George’s showed exceptional work rate throughout the whole game.
Mr Gregory
02 December U8 Boys’ House Rugby Matches
St Philip’s 35 – 35 St George’s
Players of the match: Alexander Stacey and Raymond Song
Not only have the boys had to learn the fundamental physical skills of playing Rugby but also all the weird and wonderful laws that come along with the game. What was great to see is that all the boys were engaged and involved in the match, and everyone had their part to play. The game was end to end drama with some great running with the ball from both sides. As the boys got more into the game, the support running became better and the passing was quicker. As a result, the try rate increased. The match was a true testament to the attention to learning and progress the boys have made over the past 12 weeks and they should all be very proud of themselves.
Mr Melia
02 December U8 Boys’ House Rugby Matches
St Philip’s 30-30 St George’s
Players of the Match: Sahib Pahal and Jovan Aeitan
An excellent first house match was played out by the St George’s and St Philip’s sides with both showing excellent running ability, the capacity to follow the player with the ball in support and some excellent defending. As the game progressed both teams started to appreciate the space more effectively and some wonderful tries were scored by both sides. Arin Nair and Roman Wadhwa were strong runners and Jovan Aeitan supported the ball very well. For Phillip’s, Jacob Cronin and Sahib Pahal were the driving forces. In the end the game finished a draw thanks to a last minute try, well done all.
Mr Protherough
