Club Day

1st XV: Won 32-17 vs St. Thomas’s College

The match against St Thomas’ was one that was both significant for a number of individual players and for the team as a whole as it was the seventh game in the last twenty-two days. Four players, Justin Evans, Dominic Gardiner, Eto Bainivalu and Hamish Jones all brought up their 25th game and Connor O’Neill, Angus Grant, Dominic Brankin, Tadeo Andriani, Sam Anderson and Logan Roberts received their caps. Sam Sparrow, who was unfortunately injured against St. Peter’s, was also presented with his cap.

St. Bede’s began the game well and dominated for the first twenty minutes. Organised attacking play and some excellent defence saw them establish a lead that would ultimately be too much for St. Thomas’ to overcome. Justin Evans opened the scoring with a well taken try, that was quickly followed by tries to Logan Roberts and Angus Grant. Both tries were converted by Justin. The half time score of 19-0 was soon reduced by St. Thomas to 19-7. St Bede’s though quickly responded with another try to Justin Evans. St. Thomas’ however were not finished as they scored again to reduce the lead to 24-12. St. Bede’s extended their lead with an Evans penalty and again St Thomas’ scored to close the gap to 27-17. Despite a number of substitutions and great St Thomas’ pressure St. Bede’s had the final say with a very deserved try to Tadeo Andriani. St. Bede’s were presented with the McKendry Cup, one of Canterbury’s oldest trophies at the completion of the game and then both teams were hosted by the Marist Rugby Club.

St Bede’s 32 (Tries: J Evans (2) L. Roberts, A Grant, T Andriani; Cons: J Evans (2) Pens: J Evans (1)

St Thomas’ 17

2nd XV: Lost 0-34 vs CBHS 3rd XV

Facing CBHS 3rd’s was always going to be more of a test for us. With the home advantage, great weather and good support on club day, we were looking forward to the challenge.

Having cobbled a team together, due to sickness, injury and player unavailability, we took to the field and in the opening ten minutes looked like we were in the game. The opposition quickly worked out though, that a number of our players, who were playing out of their usual positions, were vulnerable and that’s when the tries started.

The halftime talk provided guidance around measures to stem the onslaught and the second half was a closer game with CBHS adding just 10 points.

This game provided Ollie Barber (No. 8) his first game for us, having joined us as an International Rugby Programme player. We look forward to seeing more of him as our season continues.

We are grateful to the 16A’s, whom having had a default this week were able to provide us four players. Thanks too to all those people who made Club Day such a success.

HT 24 - 0, FT 34 – 0 Player of the Day: Dylan Cannan

3rd XV: Won 41-0 vs CBHS U18 “Black”

After a good week training the team stepped up and brought a lot more structure to the game. While still patchy in a few areas the team played well and scored a very good win 41 – 0. The forwards dominated the scrum and breakdown and were able to give the team go forward when needed. Tried were scored out wide with some very free flowing periods. The defence was much improved with CBHS only getting into our half twice in the 2nd half. A much improved performance leading to the second round which gives us a good platform to start from.

4th XV: Lost 22-55 vs CBHS U18 “Blue”

U16A: Won by default vs St. Andrew’s U!6 A

U16B: Lost 19-21 vs Hornby RFC U16

U15A: Lost 5-8 vs CBHS U15 “A”

The U15A team played Boys’ High on the No. 2 field in near perfect rugby conditions. Both sides had been traveling well to date and Bede's needed another big effort to knock over the old foe and secure a place in the pay offs. However, despite the great conditions for play both teams made a number of critical errors in key areas on the park. Boys’ High went up with an early try, followed 10 minutes later by a brilliant piece of back play to bring the halftime score to 5-5. An unstructured second half saw Bede's struggle to make constructive use of their possession and fail to crack the Boys’ High defence. Boys’ High secured their win with a penalty in the last 5 min.

U15 Red: Won 33-22 vs Shirley BHS U15B

U15 Black: Drew 36-36 vs Hornby RFC U15

It was a hard fought game today, against a fired up Hornby who turned up eager to win. Late in the second half, our boys held their composure as the other team lost theirs. They looked after each other and stuck to playing rugby and it paid off. Tries to Jack (2), Logan, Leuan, Jake and Thomas. 3 conversions to Ashton Haigh.

U14A won 29-17 v St. Thomas’s U14

U14B: Lost 34-59 vs CBHS U14 “Gold”

U58kgs “Red” Lost 19-30 vs ChCh FC Tomahawks

The Under 58 Red team went down to the Christchurch Tomahawks. The Tomahawks had beaten us in the first round, so the boys were keen for some redemption, unfortunately they didn’t get it. The Tomahawks got off to a flyer with a mistake off the kick-off by us quickly turning into a try for them. They then struck again as a result of a couple of missed tackles. They scored 1 more just before half time to go to the break 17 nil. It would have been more, except the very gutsy tackling from fullback Finn O’Kane.
The second half started badly with the Tomahawks scoring again. Very pleasingly the boys remained positive and kept fighting scoring the next 2 tries with Fraser Brown finishing off a 40m run by Olly Meates, and Sam Woodgate got due reward for his hard running that he had been doing all day.
Another little mistake and a couple more missed tackles let the Tomahawks score again before Stijn Lutters muscled over for another deserving try.
The final score was 30 to 19. A good comeback, but ultimately they deserved to win.

U58kgs “Black” Won 31-15 vs ChCh FC Knights