Quarter final disappointment

The Year 10 squad set off on Sunday afternoon to travel to Brighton where they stayed over in a Travel Lodge to prepare for Monday’s important match. After a walk to the pier the lads got their heads down for a good nights sleep waking up to freezing cold temperatures—snowing!

Brighton College was an impressive venue to host the game. Brighton started the game really strongly scoring 4 tries within 15 minutes and making very few mistakes with clinical back play. Beaufort got back into the game before half time where they got their first scrum on 25 minutes. A good scrum by the forwards enabled Dan Martin to pick up from the base and dive into the corner to score—half time 26-7. The second half saw Beaufort dominate possession and some good kicking from Reece Boughton kept the pressure on Brighton. Beaufort stuck to their task, finally loosing the game 33-7. We wish Brighton all the best in their pursuit of success at Twickenham.

As a team the squad have shown a total dedication and commitment to each other and Beaufort Community School. Their achievements this year will go down in Beaufort rugby history and we look forward to starting another campaign next year. Well done lads.

Mr King, Head of PE

Year 10 rugby success

Beaufort won through to the latter stages of the Daily Mail Vase with an intelligent and disciplined performance against a strong Beechen Hill team from Bath. Beaufort now faces Brighton College in the quarter finals of the competition just two wins away from a final at Twickenham.

After the previous weeks efforts played in the snow against Reading school, the game kicked off in relatively pleasant conditions though a strong breeze blowing down the field had a large impact upon proceedings.

Winning the toss and playing against the elements in the first half the aim was to be in touching distance at half time. Beaufort managed to control much of the first half with a strong defensive effort and surging runs up field spearheaded by Ryan Charles and Dan Martin. As the half wore on, Beechen Cliff grew increasingly frustrated with their inability to take hold of the game. A spear tackle from their full back led to them being reduced to fourteen players for ten minutes and encourage a huge effort from the Beaufort pack. A series of five meter scrums on the Beechen Cliff line were being thwarted by repeated infringements from the Beechen back row. The referee ran out of patience and issued his second yellow of the afternoon to their captain and no 8. Whilst down to thirteen men, Beaufort recognised where the space lay out wide and put powerful winger Aiden Davis in for two identical tries in the right hand corner.

This success encouraged Beaufort to continue running at their opponents and increasingly holes began to appear in the Beechen defence. Despite a number of opportunities presenting themselves the half ended 10-0 in Beaufort’s favour.

The second half was a demonstration of how much the side has progressed and was a testament to their ability to close out games from winning positions. Using the wind and slope to good effect, half backs Joel James and Reece Boughton kicked sensibly for the corners and a good ’kick chase’ by the entire team ensured Beechen had no time to relax. As the half wore on the scrummage of Sam Jameson, Joe Smith and Ryan Charles started to dominate proceedings in the scrum and led to an uncomfortable time for the Beechen pack and scrum half.

Again, frustration began to creep into their play and Beechen found themselves penalised for a number of infringements at the scrum and break down. Each infringement was punished by either a ‘raking’ touch finder or by three points from the trusty boot of Reece Boughton. At 16-0 up with ten minutes  to play things looked comfortable but Beechen had other ideas. A series of replacements joined the field including a back row player who managed to cause a number of problems for the seemingly impenetrable Beaufort defence. A well taken try from Beechen which started in their own half and a number of breaks saw a bit of panic for the last five minutes. Despite the threat Beaufort held firm and the final whistle was met with a huge cheer as Beaufort booked their place in the quarter finals. The team now faces a trip to Brighton College in a bid to carry on their fairy tale season.

Well done to all involved.

Mr King, Head of PE

The Squad

Sam Jameson, Ryan Charles, Joe Smith, Jake Mcrae, Scott Berriman, Connor Jones, Harry Williams, Dan Martin, Reece Boughton, Joel James, Kieran Meheran,

Ben Robinson, Alex Jeffery, Aiden Davis, Billy Ashmore, Tom Evans, Liam Roberts, Zac Reid, Sam Wichard, Kieran Cox, James Elliott, Aston Richards.