Our season started off strong with new players and some very quick progress from the team. We excelled quickly even with it being our first year of fifteen aside rugby and competitive scrums. The team found positioning and formation difficult, but they kept persevering and progressed quickly making big improvements with team defence and attack. The team was helped in this by superb captaincy and leadership from Tom Howe and vice-captains Alexander Campbell and Harry Butcher.

We started with some good wins at home at the start of the season with a good kicking performance from tee by Tom Howe scoring all 6 of his conversions. We had some very challenging fixtures throughout in which the team showed their skill and determination to come through with some wins and great rugby, with a standout game away from home with Harry Leighton grabbing himself a hattrick and player of the match rounded off with a great defensive performance from our back row. With only a few matches left at home we ended off strong with a great performance from our centres Alexander Campbell and Nathan Maguire both scoring 2 tries each rounding off a brilliant match with flair from our backline.

Our season ended with 2 tournaments; the first being a steep learning curve against some tough opposition, but there were positives in their attitude to fight to the end of every match and some excellent defensive work from David Thomas. However, the whole team showed resilience in the second tournament with some great wins helped by great scrummaging from our front row and great defence from our whole team. We found ourselves found us in the final, which we started strong with a huge tackle from Conan O’Kane which got the crowd going shifting the momentum but not for long as we eventually found ourselves behind and unfortunately ended in a loss meaning second place. It was a great finish to the season from the team with our Number 8 Jonny Taggart scoring a very impressive 9 tries including a game winner to take us to the final. It was a great season with great improvement on our first year in fifteen aside rugby and plenty of new players. It was a very enjoyable season, and we look forward to more rugby and fun next year.

Tom Howe (U13 Captain)