This week saw the culmination of the efforts of our Year 4 Tag Rugby squad. They have been training hard every Friday for the last 6 weeks in preparation for the U9 Tag Rugby Festival at Akeley Wood Junior School in Milton Keynes. The day would see the children compete against other schools within ISA London North and acquit themselves extremely well.
The opening fixture saw Avon House face local opposition in Daiglen. It was an impressive start to the event seeing confident passing and decision making throughout and ending in a victory of 6 tries to 1.
Game 2 saw Avon House accept the challenge of Immanuel School from Romford. Immanuel School showed great pace throughout the game creating many chances, however, resolute defence and decisive finishing saw Avon House victorious with 5 tries to 3.
Game 3 pitted Avon House against St James’s School, London. This was a significantly tense affair with Avon House edging ahead, before being pegged back by the positive play of the opposition. With less than a minute left in the game Avon House scored what would look to be the winning try. Setting our defensive line thoughts had strayed to the next match and a lapse in concentration gave St James’s one last chance. An excellent run saw them equalise on the whistle. The game ended in a 5-5 draw and lessons were learnt.
In Game 4, Avon House met The Orchard School. Smarting a little from the experience of the previous game the team took a commanding lead which they carried throughout. Here the children displayed great individual skill and team play to end the match with a 7-3 victory.
Following a lunch break, where the hot topic had been the sighting of wild elephants on the journey to Akeley Wood, the children prepared themselves for their afternoon matches. During Game 5, Avon House played the festival hosts Akeley Wood, who run regular contact matches throughout the year. Their rugby experience showed in their style of play and flowing passing and support play were rewarded with tries. Not to be outshone, the Avon House team rallied and put in a performance to be proud of. Great communication in defence and fast thinking and support in attack saw the team claw back a deficit (which is a really hard thing to do in Tag Rugby) and end up winning a high scoring game 8-5!
Game 6 proved to be the most exciting of the day, facing BGI (Bedford Greenacre Independent), once again the children faced opposition for a school that regularly compete in contact matches and once again performed brilliantly. In fairness, BGI set the pace and tone of the game and all who were watching were treated to a complete try fest! In and end to end game both teams displayed speed, tenacity, endurance and desire. At full time however, it was BGI that emerged victorious 9-8.
In the final game of the day, the children displayed their character. Rather than being disheartened by a close loss in the match before, they picked themselves up and gave their all. Webber were our final opposition and the Avon House team held nothing back. They controlled the game from start to finish, converting any and all chances that came their way.
In truth, I could not be happier with the performances of the team and they all represented our school community with distinction. Remember if you are travelling, towards Milton Keynes at any point watch out for elephants!
Well done to all those that played.
Categories: Sport
