Cliddesden Primary School

Year 5 and 6 Sparkling Rugby Tournament

On Wednesday 21^st the rugby team took part in a tournament at Overton rugby club. The host of the tournament was Mr Filby who has helped the team get ready for the competition. Mr Stapleton coached us and Mr Barden, Mrs Banks, Mrs Garland and some parents came along to watch as well.

The first match against Winklebury. At first in the match Tom scored 1 try. Next Jack skilled some of the opponents and scored another try for the team. Afterwards Tom decided as centre to pass to Thomas. Thomas ran down the field with the ball, zig- zagging all over the place and scored another try.  But to our disappointment the team scored a try in the last couple of minutes and beat us with a score of 4-3.

Next was a short break to take a drink whilst other matches took place on our pitch. During the break the team practiced throwing, catching and running in to catch the ball with Mr Stapleton.

After our break we went up against the Barbarian team. They were a team of yr3 and 4s. The team were good for their age.  The first try was scored by their team. Cliddesden got annoyed because we were surprised that we didn’t get his tag. But then everything changed! Tom did an excellent pass out to Thomas but he got tagged, the ball went back to Tom and he scored our first try. The next try was simple. Thomas was passed from Tom and he dodged all of our opponents to score our second try. Now the third pass was to Elliot. Elliot ran, but shamefully got tagged, so he passed to Emma. Emma got tagged so she passed to Archie, running behind Archie was Jack just in case Archie got tagged but he didn’t. Dodging the Barbarians Archie sprinted to the try line to get our last try. The score was 3-1 to Cliddesden. 

Again we had other break in-between different matches. The team got a drink and a snack and talked about skills and tactics. We had a run around playing with each other and again practicing. Soon it was our turn to play against Ashford Hill.

Our team captain Elliot went to the ref for the coin toss. Unfortunately he lost it and Ashford started with the ball, but we changed sides so our backs were against the sun. As the ref blew the whistle Cliddesden charged towards Ashford Hill. One of our team members grabbed the tag but the person carried on running and took too many steps so he gave the ball away to Cliddesden. Tom started with the ball and passed to Thomas. Thomas got tagged so he passed to Hannah. Hannah caught the ball and run straight to the try line to score our first try. The next try was scored by Jack. At first Tom passed to Elliot, Elliot ran and got tagged so he passed to Emma. Emma got tagged so she passed to Archie. Archie ran in to catch the ball but was then tagged! So finally he passed to Jack to score our second try. Next Ashford Hill got a try. But then Tom gave the ball to Ashford by a forward pass. They scored another try but during that Tom got knocked over and injured his ankle. So Emma, Archie and Hannah called ref to help him up and take him over to Mr Stapleton. Tom got replaced by Zac. Zac did very well seeing that he had no idea what position he was playing! And next Ashford Hill scored 2 and then Cliddesden scored 2 making the scores 4-4.

After that match a Barbarian team needed some extra players so three team members went over. The players were: Verity, Mimi and Zac. They all worked well with each other but sadly did not win. At least the score didn’t affect our team!

Next we had another break to discuss what we could have done better to win the match. Also Tom was putting icepacks on his foot so he could recover before the next match. Before the team went on again we watched the match that was on. We watched their tactics just in case we were against them. Once the match ended the strongest team were back in play against Silchester.

Silchester were a tough team but we were good too! At first Silchester started and scored their first try by running straight from one end to the other end of the pitch. Next we started with the ball. Tom passed to Elliot. Elliot ran but got tagged so he passed to Emma. Emma got tagged and made an excellent pass out to Archie. Archie caught the ball and scored a try. Then another try by Silchester. Cliddesden then started with the ball again and the ball went across the line to Emma, Emma scored our next try. There was then a knock on by Silchester so the ball went to Cliddesden. The ball went to Archie and he scored Cliddesden last try because then Silchester scored the rest of their tries to the match with a score of 5-3 to Silchester.

Another break and Hannah and Thomas S went to watch the next match. They were stood next to the judge talking about Silchester and how good their skills are but how they work as a team. As the match came to an end we moved and got ready for our next match against Echinswell.

Echinswell didn’t score the first try Cliddesden did. It was by Thomas. As the team ran back to get to their positions the ref had only just blown the whistle to signal that we could play. As Cliddesden ran to get those tags Hannah made a brilliant tag. Unfortunately we didn’t get another tag so a try went to Echinswell. The next 2 tries were scorn by Tom and then Echinswell. The game ended 3-2 to Cliddesden.

Our last game was against Rucstall. Rucstall to be honest were unfair players. They shoved people out of the way so Cliddesden couldn’t get their friends tags. At first Archie got Rucstall tags but they got tries and they won by far. The score was 7-3.

At the end we gathered our belongings and walked down to the bottom of the field to see if we were going through. We didn’t win any trophies and didn’t through. But in the league Cliddesden came 2^nd and Hannah won best player of the team award. The award was a rugby ball!