First XV win their opener

Roddy Giles on attack

Roddy Giles on attack

A tired but satisfied First XV enjoyed watching new scrum-half, Rory Bennett, receive a Man-of-the Match award from Rugby School’s referee on Wednesday afternoon. The team had put in a lot over the first week of term, and even more on the field, to win their opening fixture 17-7 over a solid looking St Hugh’s team.

With a week’s worth of practices, Bilton faced visitors who were playing their 4th fixture of the season. The boys had worked hard in the days leading up to the match, covering all they could in five sessions, including a voluntary hour on Monday evening. St Hughs had won their first fixture before the Bilton boys even returned from their summer holiday!

The boys took the first half to get settled, putting together some good passages of play but conceding a try due to disorganized defence. It was clear, though, that Bilton had what it took to win the game if they could string together a few phases.

Early in the second half, they did exactly that: from a sustained period of possession, including good continuity through support running and offloading, Vice-captain Oli Robinson took a short pass near the line and crashed over for the score. Roddy Giles converted to level the scores.

Bilton’s second came from another good build-up, with captain Giles taking advantage of space created by a good forward drive to dive over near the posts. Robinson took advantage of a similar possession by picking up from the base of the scrum and taking advantage of the new ELVs which put the defence 5m back from the scrum. He drove over for his second of the day.

The try scorers were only as good as the team that put them in good positions in the first place: strong driving runs from Bilton’s forwards, and some straight running from the three-quarters meant that Bilton often looked threatening.

The team will need to keep working on organisation, especially in defence, but their exhausted, happy smiles as they came off the field showed that they knew they had worked hard enough to deserve their first win.

More images
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Charlie Smith on the break
Charlie Smith on the break
Oli Robinson scores his second
Oli Robinson scores his second
Bilton defend
Bilton defend
Salah El-Husseini lines up a target
Salah El-Husseini lines up a target
 

Tags: Prep, Rugby, Sport