Sir Thomas Rich's School in Gloucester were beaten with the very last move of the game this afternoon after St Joseph's College performed a real smash and grab victory after trailing by 9 points into the last 2 minutes.
[From the perspective of an ex-Richian] Sir Thomas Rich's School field was packed this evening as close to 600 spectators roared Tommies on towards Twickenham in this Quarter Final of the Daily Mail Cup against top seeds St Joseph's College from Ipswich.
Tommies had reached the furthest point in the school's history after beating Bishops Wandsworth school the previous week. With a team prided on organisation and teamwork it was a real mis-match at kick off as the much bigger and quicker St Joseph's began confidently to show why they are tipped by many to lift the cup at Twickenham in a few weeks - however after this display they deserve very little.
Tommies opened the scoring with a penalty from scrum-half Ollie Young from just in front of the posts after the travelling centre was sin-binned for killing the ball and back-talking to the very strict referee, an infringement which St Josephs committed far too many times and were rightly punished due to their lack of respect and poor discipline. The first try came from an unusual source, Tommies' hooker Chris Brooks charged down a box-kick and danced down the touchline to place down. Young missed the tricky touchline conversion.
St Joseph's had a real air of arrogance about them and they looked shocked to be behind and their considerably larger forwards were being out-muscled and & out-manoeuvred by the young Tommies' pack. However after a period of sustained pressure on the Tommies' line a rolling maul allowed the impressive St Joe's back row to touch down, and the conversion attempt was closer to the Old Richian's clubhouse than the posts. 8-5
Half time came and went and the next score appeared crucial. Despite dropping the restart Tommies withheld a lot of St Joe's pressure yet the scores were levelled after a penalty.?The boys in Blue then upped the ante and marched up the other end of the pitch and a number of impressive breaks by the imperious Sam Underhill who ignored the age advantage he gave to the opposition and was the best player on the pitch. Young was put on the spot several times and thanks to several erratic tackles and bad discipline yet again to give Tommies a 17-9 lead with 10 minutes remaining. Tommies had about 5 minutes to hold on to the victory as it seemed the visitors were more inclined to fight the home team and themselves and the game was slipping away as Tommies were keeping the ball in hand and looking confident.
The turning point came when the solid Number 8 Charlie Isaac was spear tackled after a ruck and looked to have suffered a serious injury, as attention diverted to his well-being, another scuffle broke out and try-scorer Brooks found himself on the end of a flurry of punches, which the ref was oblivious to. During which time St Joe's recycled the ball out to their speedy winger and as defenders were sucked towards the large lock that trundled towards the line , the ball was slipped out to the wing, touched down and St Joe's sensed a comeback. In football, play is stopped for serious injuries - Isaac was clearly out for the count yet the referee allowed play to materialise into a game-changing score. Tommies now lead by 4 points with 2 minutes remaining. 17-13
It seemed inevitable as this point. Tommies were broken, they had thrown so much effort into the game and St Joseph's had the momentum roared on by a vociferous away following. The ball was secured from the restart and a penalty allowed St Joseph's one more chance, after one attempt to drive over resulted in the badly bruised Brooks to be sin-binned by the referee, the next lineout saw the St Joe's pack secure the ball and edge themselves over the line with the last move of the match. There was no time to restart the game and Tommies were beaten. FT Sir Thomas Rich's 17 - 18 St Joseph's College
This reporter, as an ex-Richian was speechless. St Joseph's were joyous and their away following, parents, flags and horns all invaded the pitch running through the stricken Tommies' warriors. Now, I feel this is completely inappropriate, they were horrendous with their attitude when they were trailing and this hurt - even for a fan. Had this not been a school game then I feel words would have been said because the behaviour of the St Joseph's travelling fans were frankly unacceptable for parents to conduct themselves in such a manner. That saying, St Joseph's did show why they were highly fancied this year, despite showing little with ball in hand, their forwards utilised the rolling maul and the line-out began functioning at the right time after STRS managed to steal all in the first half. 2 of St Joseph's tries came from rolling mauls and marshalled by their solid back rower (#6 - this kid was never under 18, he looks older than me ) they looked organised in this instance.
Final words must go to the STRS boys, they were outstanding, they put their bodies on the line and for 75 minutes they were the better team and MUST send a message to the organisers of the DMC to stand up and take notice of the STRS Rugby team. No longer are St Peters the force in Gloucestershire Rugby. Players like Ollie Young and Sam Underhill were dominant in their areas and belittled their age-group to stand tall and boss the game. The future looks bright for Tommies' Rugby but in my opinion this year the team deserve so much better.
Tommies Til I Die .
Comments please.
Tom
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