St. Faiths vs. Kings Ely (rugby)

Today we were really motivated to beat Kings Ely, firstly because Kings Cambridge had beaten us already and secondly because the season is coming to a close next week and we want to end it on a high note.

During the first part of the game, the ball must have traveled everywhere on the field except the try zone. Domination was going back and forth between the two teams. We were extremely dominant in rucks and scrums, but we conceded lots of penalties as well. However, one ruck that St. Faiths won proved to be fatal for Kings Ely because as soon as our fakey-fakey inside centre Ed Fairey received the ball, he did his business and gave us our first try.

The second half was the flower of our performance. Try #2 was scored by Will 'Lightnin' Zeitlyn, who, as soon as he saw a gasp in Kings Ely's defense, went straight for it. Nobody on St. Faiths was expecting this, so he had no support and 5 opponents on his tail. It seemed like milliseconds before he raced into the try zone, and just for the heck of it, he ran sideways to score under the posts. He seemed to have made his mark on that encounter, but he wanted more. He scored again, but that time he wasn't so sure about himself. He got tackled, but stretched his arms just enough to place the ball on the try line. King's Ely never underestimated him again. He even got the man of the match award after the game finished with a final score of 19-0 to St. Faiths. Guess what? It was even his birthday. What a lovely birthday present for him.

St. Faiths vs Bishop's Stortford

The first half of this match was an absolute blowout.Four times the offense of Bishop’s Stortford snuck through the gaps in our defense to score.We were deep in Bishop’s Stortford’s half until their offense got the ball and crept up the pitch, breakdown by breakdown, play by play.Finally, a ruck near our posts resulted in their blonde full-back diving into the try zone, capping the outstanding play off.However, our star inside centre Ed Fairey bravely blocked their attempted conversion with his hands.We could still pull in the lead if we tried hard.
Try Number Two resulted in poor tackling from St. Faiths, with one of their men driving the swarm of red and black jerseys surrounding him until the ball came to rest just right of the posts in the try zone.
The third try occurred when one of our men handled the ball in a ruck 5 meters from the posts.This gave Bishop’s Stortford a penalty in which their man dodged and fought his way 5 meters for the try.
The final try of the first half happened when their full back intercepted a pass down our back line and ran almost 70 meters.Our brilliant fly half Dominic Lea pursued him the whole time and just before the opposition scored again, he attempted a last-gasp dive but he didn’t quite reach Bishop’s Stortford’s man, who slid under the posts in a wild celebration.It wasn’t a great start to the first half, but we knew that the only way we could go was up.St. Faiths was definitely right about going up.We held Bishop's Stortford at 0-0 for almost the whole second half, with some close calls here and there. Then, at the last moment, we fumbled a pass in the try zone due to handling errors from both the passer and the receiver and many jerseys scrambled for the ball, but Bishop’s Stortford touched it down for the final try.

St. Faiths vs. Felsted

There had been a rugby tournament in October that St. Faiths had played, at a school called New Hall. We won our group matches, but guess who we lost to in the semifinals? Felsted. We were looking to get revenge from them, but unfortunately for us, we lost 2 tries to nil.

In the first half, Felsted dominated and scored a try, their lock pummeling through our defense to score. There was no real action other than the try, but we kept them at 7 points. At halftime, our coach said that the forwards needed to get to the rucks and the tackling needed to be better.

The halftime break seemed to be the spark for us. Our tackling was still iffy, but our forwards were getting to the rucks. However, Felsted still had the advantage over us in terms of possession and scored the winning try with one of their backs dodging our defense and running to score the concluding try.

St. Faiths vs. St. Johns

Like our match against Kings, there was one player who we feared quite a lot. His name was Ali Russell. He was considerably bigger than Jonah (see the link in line 1), but Jonah was just as good as Ali in terms of quickness and tackling. Shown to the left is Tom Wilkinson, our speedy right winger. He played very well on his runs on the right hand side. Unfortunately, the rest of the team didn't do well enough. The final score was 19-7, St. Johns winning.

In the first half, the tempo was fast, and the ball was inside the St. Johns half for almost all the time. What was frustrating was the fact that the minute and a half that they had the ball in our half was the play that scored them their first try, which was not converted. So at halftime, we thought that if we scored a try and converted it, that we could hold on until the end of the game.

St. Johns proved us wrong. One of them barged through our defense to score, and near the end of the game, Ali Russell sprinted down the left hand side of the pitch to score, although many of our team (including me) saw him and thought that he was out of bounds during the first part of his run. However, our scrum half had scored a try in between the two St. Johns tries of the second half. So at least the loss wasn't a blowout.

St. Faiths vs. Norwich

When we arrived at Norwich, we saw our opponents warming up. Some players on our team thought they looked horrible. Then Jo Whitelock, the other second rower, said, " Remember our match against Wellingborough. We thought they were bad, and then they creamed us." He was referring to an earlier match we played against a school called Wellingborough in the Midlands. After that we forgot about it entirely.

The match started out favoring Norwich in the first minute or so. But then we held them at about midfield for 15 minutes until their inside center dodged our back line and sprinted down for the try. Then it was halftime. Our coach said our tackling was so-so, but that our running and our scrums were great. He also said that the forwards needed to get to the rucks.

In the second half, we were on fire. Our first try was scored when after a long series of plays, our brilliant left wing Will (or 'Lightning' as we call him) ran 10 yards while narrowly avoiding the touch line. The next try was scored by Joseph, a second rower who broke through just about 10 tackles before scoring. Then our star outside center picked up the ball from a ruck and ran 15 yards to score. Then our loosehead prop Max ploughed through their defense for 5 yards to score the try that polished it off. The final score was 27-7 to St.Faiths.

St. Faiths vs. Kings

This was the second time we had played Kings. We had won last time, so we were confident, but there was one player in particular that scared us quite a lot. His name was Jonah. You could never tackle him near his chest or his long, brown hair would get in the way. Whenever he got the ball, he always gained at the minimum 7 yards before being tackled - if you could catch him. He was pretty much the ultimate rugby player: strong, fast, and a tough guy to escape from if you were running. Then, we started the match. The game seemed pretty even for a while. There seemed to be a lot of scrums, but St. Faiths won quite a few of them. Then there was a ruck on the right hand side of the pitch, which Kings won. The scrum half, instead of passing it down the back line, let the left wing take the ball. It turned out to be a pretty good decision. He dodged our right wing and our outside centre, and then dashed down the left side, narrowly avoiding the touch line, and scored with ease.

Then, halftime came along. Our coach said our tackles needed to be better, but that when they scored their try, nobody was to blame, the boy was just too fast.

In the second half, we made more tackles and our offloads were better, but Kings were fighting back. After 5 minutes or so, we won one of their scrums, so our backs got the ball. Now, our backs knew some very good moves that most teams did not know , like Kings, for example. One of these moves involved doing a dummy to the inside center, then faking the dummy but passing to the outside center. That was exactly what they did. Some Kings players were thrown off by the first dummy, but then they must have thought something like," Oh, they are probably gonna do that dummy again, we need to tackle their fly half." But they were caught off guard for real when our outside center got the ball. I saw about five Kings players tackling our fly half. Poor Dominic. However, that move that the backs had created was the reason for the try, scored by our outside center. We were hoping that Sewelly, our full back, would convert the try to make us even with the men in purple. His kick looked like he was going for a set of goalposts about 5 meters to the right of the real ones and just as far down. Horrible. We were all very, very conscious that we had to score another try - and soon. However, right when the game would have ended, there was an identical play to the first try. There was a ruck on the right hand side of the pitch, which Kings won. The scrum half, instead of passing it down the back line, let the left wing take the ball. He dashed down the left side, leaving all of us in our wake and scored. And then the final whistle blew.

St. Faiths vs. Stamford

This match was pretty evenly matched for the whole time. Both teams ran very well, some poor tackles were made, and the ball was fairly evenly distributed (in a rough way, ha-ha) to both teams. However, after 15 minutes or so, Stamford scored a try with their huge tighthead prop, who barreled through our poor defense to score. Then, 5 minutes later, it was halftime. After halftime, Will Sewell, our fullback, broke through quite a few tackles after receiving Stamford's kick-off, but he got pummeled by their huge tighthead prop (this prop is good!). He gained 30 yards for us though. After a foul against Stamford at about midfield, we got possesion and held onto it until a ruck near the try line. We only had 3 men (including me) in the ruck against 5 or 6 opponents.Because of that, they got possesion and held on until the end of the match. To tell you the truth, though, it was really any man's match from the start.