Won 28-24

The 1st XV took on the competition leaders Shirley Boys' High School on Saturday. This was last year’s SKY TV match and for the second time in a row the game finished with Shirley hammering at the St Bede’s line looking for the try that would win the match. In last year’s game Tadeo Andriani’s goal-line tackle was the last play while this year it was Rowan Neilsen holding up a Shirley player inches above the ground over the line for a 28-24 victory. They also defended the Trustee Bank Cup for the first time.

The game was played in front of a very large crowd at Linfield Park in perfect conditions. Mason Allison opened the scoring with a penalty. Shirley responded with a converted try and gained some dominance. As would happen throughout the game St Bede’s took advantage of their limited chances and responded with a try to George Methven from a well worked scrum move. Mason added the conversion. 10 all. St Bede’s again got on attack and used the backline effectively to put Isaac Hutchinson in for the try again converted by Mason. They went into the halftime with a 17-10 lead. The early part of the second half was again St Bede’s as they added a Shadroch Sevele try and saw Mason’s only miss of the game when his conversion attempt hit the upright. 22-10. From this point on however, Shirley took over and St Bede’s were forced to defend bravely for the remainder of the game. On two separate occasions St Bede’s broke out and on both Mason was able to hit long range penalties. The last ten minutes saw Shirley look for the winning try and St Bede’s repeatedly preventing them from scoring.

The team can look back on the last two weeks with a great deal of pride and two very good wins. This week they head to Nelson to take on Waimea Combined, a team who have produced some good results in recent weeks.