6th May 2016
Last Thursday evening rugby players from St Brendan’s had an opportunity to banish the memory of losing last years’ Bristol Plate final and end a successful season with a trophy.
Rugby Players in scrum
Preparations had gone well and the St Brendan’s side were confident against a strong St Mary Redcliffe & Temple team. From the start, both sides were a little nervous and this meant more errors than usual from both teams. Unfortunately St Mary’s capitalised on one of these errors; scoring an opportunist try. After re-grouping, St Brendan’s finally got some forward momentum going and put St Mary’s under great pressure, resulting in a penalty. Now they had settled into the game, St Brendan’s started to continually put pressure on their opposition and dominate the territory. St Mary’s held firm and were always dangerous on the counter attack, but some fierce tackling kept the score at 3-5 at half time.
The second half started much the same as the first had ended with St Brendan’s making most of the plays and St Mary’s waiting for their moment to capitalise on any mistakes. Unfortunately this resulted in another try for St Mary’s and moved them 3-12 ahead. Lesser teams would have folded at that stage however this seasons’ St Brendan’s team has developed into a much more resilient side and rather than fade away, they fought even harder. Each player drove further, tackled harder and grew in stature during those final 20 minutes. A brave team try brought the score to 10-12 and the match had now fully engrossed the large crowd that had gathered.
The last few minutes of this final were both wonderful and heart breaking to watch, as St Brendan’s young men gave everything for the team to get that winning score. Sadly time ran out for St Brendan’s and that elusive trophy evaded them for another season.
Article by Paul Ryan, Sport Teacher
