First round of competition for most teams

1st XV vs Nelson College 12-14 loss

2nd XV vs Cashmere HS 30-21 win

This week saw the team playing Cashmere again after beating them the week before. Last week we also suffered three head knocks to crucial forwards, meaning others players had to seriously front up for this game. Again we were off to a good start, leading 15-0 after 25mins. But we couldn't maintain the shape and dominance we would have liked to, allowing Cashmere to stay in the game. Cashmere appears a team that plays with a lot of commitment and passion, which occasionally boils over into untidy and undisciplined play. There were large parts of the game we allowed ourselves to play their game rather than impose our own brand of rugby. A definite work on for the team moving forward. An ugly win, but a win nonetheless to open the first official round of the season.

3rd XV vs CBHS 7th XV 15-25 loss

There was an inevitable sense of old rivalry as the two school teams warmed up on Boys' High no 2. The opposition were solid mature boys running through their drills with ease. They appeared confident. Captain George Lawry, in the huddle before running onto the field, encouraged the team to focus on the game and do the basics well.

Fast forward 5 minutes and the Bede's boys had progressed from kickoff to a maul on the CBHS goal line and over went captain George for an early try. CBHS undoubtedly had to  push back and the Bede's boys must have frustrated them to keep CBHS only 10- 5 up at the half break. There was niggle and the odd off the ball scragging as it probably became evident that this was not going to be an easy win.

Early in the second half Hamish Rooney drove over in a total effort for a second week in a row. Revel Mumuta took the opportunity to have a go off the back of a 10m attacking scrum to score, but the effort was collective. There was an enormous ongoing defensive requirement across the field that was met by the team with courage. Up front the collisions were tough and further out, launched and low tackles had to be made.

The coaches Kyle Byers and old boy Caleb Pomare-Edwards both applauded the boys after the match for maintaining good composure and staying in the game. There's always the return fixture. 

4th XV vs Cashmere 2nd XV 29-24 win

U75kgs "Red" vs CC U75kgs "White" 35-6 win

The team went into the game against Christ’s College with a lot of confidence and started brightly. A well worked training ground move almost resulted in the perfect start, however, winger Dong Shin was unable to ground the ball in the corner. It took until the fifteen minute mark for Bede’s to make a breakthrough and good interplay amongst the backs led to Harvey Scott out-pacing the covering defence to score under the posts. Further good play led to scores from Samson Foley and Todd McDermott and Bede’s held a healthy 21-0 half time lead.

In the second half poor discipline and a high penalty count resulted in Charlie Coakley being sent to the bin. Bede’s managed to hold out Christ’s College during the sin-bin period without conceding any points. Once the team were restored to 15 men, strong running from Caleb Dudfield resulted in a try for him under the posts. Another good period of play led to Harvey Scott making the game safe with his second try. The St Bede’s scramble defence was good throughout the game, and the standout moment was when player of the day Harvey Scott chased down the College number 8 just short of the try line, turned the ball over and then made the clearing kick.

Christ’s College managed a consolation try at the end of the game and the final score of 35-5 continues a good run of form for the team.

U75kgs "Black" vs StAC U75kgs 26-14 win

U65kgs vs SBHS U65kgs 33-22 win

A clear and still day produced a free-flowing game of rugby at home. St Bede's kicked off and the early exchanges saw Shirley using their big 1st and 2nd 5s to run hard at the Bede's backline, however the boys carried straight on from last week with some strong first tackles. A straight run from Luke saw him crash over the line and the try was converted by Joey. The boys are growing in confidence and this can be seen in their slick passing through the back’s hands following quick ruck ball. Next, we saw a fine example of this with Jake Grafton scoring and Guy slotting a difficult kick from the far left to take the score to 14 - 0. The theme of quick recycling was central in all the great plays that St Bede's put on, and they nearly scored again after Jake’s try. Shirley tried to put pressure on our backline, however they were frequently judged offside. Another quickly recycled ball was passed through the backs and Connor M went over for the try. After his try scoring effort, Connor then followed up with a massive tackle to stop the momentum Shirley were building, however the boys dropped off a few tackles and Shirley went over in the corner. The boys quickly picked themselves up and missed a glorious 2 man overlap. Then they were helped over the line after a lovely back move. In the closing minutes of the half Billy had a great run which resulted in another quick recycled ball and Joey put through a beautiful grubber kick, Harry touching down, this was the try of the match. Joey converted again and Bede's go at halftime 28-5.

Early in the second half Shirley started to give away more penalties, this led on to Mitchell scoring. However, the boys came back again at Shirley and their dominance of the ruck nearly saw them score again. The game got quite physical and St Bede's lost players though injury. A fine break by Shirley was only stopped by a great last tackle from Dominic, sadly Shirley recycled well and they went over for an unconverted try. Shirley Boys’ ill-discipline finally came home to roost and they had a player sin binned for a head high tackle. This only seemed to focus their play more and their direct running yielded another try that was fortunately not converted. With time running out St Bede's had a player sin binned for a head high tackle. In the dying minutes Dominic hit another massive tackle and Billy then took the ball on a strong run which took the steam out of Shirley. With seconds to go Shirley dropped the ball in a promising position and the ref blew fulltime.

The boys put on superb performance of quick running rugby with strong line defence. In the face of a physical Shirley team, they kept their composure and were clinical with their finishing. The most pleasing part of their play was they had the maturity to win as a team without any coaches today, the foundations for a great season ahead.

U15 "Red" vs SBHS U15 26-7 win

The first half went incredibly well with the boys executing all the skills that they have been training for. Controlling possession on attack and giving SBHS little to no opportunities.

The lineout worked very well with us winning all of our own throw - ins and most, if not all of SBHS.

The backs ran straight on attack and gave SBHS no opportunities when we were on defence.

The communication between the boys was very strong and made a huge difference. We held SBHS scoreless in the first half and in the second we still played well, but our communication and our ruck dominance wasn’t as good as it had been in the first half. The boys still played very well and ended up with a 26 – 7 win. The team also won the Christchurch Metropolitan JAB U15 Challenge Shield. A good day for the boys. Now, we will need to continue to hold it by winning again next week!!

Unfortunately, we’ve had another injury. This was to our prop Finn Brook, he has been physical and consistently playing well every week, but has broken his wrist. This was early on in the game and Finn not knowing it was broken continued to play until being subbed off at half time. One tough dude!! His injury is one of a number of players being side lined already this season. We have a large number of players side lined recovering from injury, but we look forward to the impact they’ll make on their return.

The coaches and managers are putting in place all protocols to ensure that the boys do not come back to the game until they have fully recovered from their injuries and are fit to play.

With the exception of the injury to Finn i,t has been a very good result for the first round of the competition.

U15 "Black" vs Linwood U15 0-67 loss

The Black team came into this fixture with a disrupted build up having initially been given the bye and having a number of boys away and sick.
Linwood are a very strong side with some big and athletic lads. They attacked relentlessly and found lots of room out wide. The Bede's boys tackled well but had very little first half possession.
The second half was a much more even affair as Bede's lifted their game and had some good moments on attack, and were brave in their tackles. They started to use their structured play and get over the gain line. However some late tries to Linwood blew the score out a little.

We will be better for the game and will continue to build and improve, ideally with a full squad next weekend.

Forward of the day: Henry P
Back of the day: Finn O
Player of the day: Tommy G

U14 "Red" vs STC U14 29-29 draw

An action packed game today saw us draw with St Thomas of Canterbury 29-29. After losing by 50 points last week this was a big improvement from the team. We saw some good breaks, some solid tackles and some good passing.

Connor Campbell-Scott had a strong game in the front row and pulled off some crunching tackles. Lachie Earl pulled in line out after line out and stole ball in the air. We have made good progress and will continue to do so.

Tries today to Finn Pearson, Sione Nuku, Charlie Applegate (2). Conversions to Reuben McIntyre.

Thanks to the many supporters who lined the sideline again this week...we appreciate your presence.

U14 "Black" vs Otautahi RFC U14 5-84 loss

U14 Black started well, putting together some good phases and shifting the ball well to the outsides. However after a quick turnover by Otautahi it became evident that with their quick and strong ball runners they were going to be a real threat with ball in hand. Some strong running by their centre/wing combinations lead to a well taken first up try. The boys bounced back well with a quick turnover of their own inside our own 22 and good hands through the backline put Harry Gorman into space leading to a 80m try. After that we battled hard to look after the ball but any quick turnovers by Otautahi or wrong options by the boys put us under pressure and meant we had to make our first up tackles. With their pace and size they were often able to get behind our first line of defence putting our structure under pressure leading to a score blow out. Despite the result there were quite a few positives with the boys looking good when they had front foot ball, some strong individual performances and signs that the boys are moving towards a team performance as they get to know each other’s game. Well done to Gethin Blair on Back of the Day and Luke Spanjer on Forward of the Day. The boys are looking forward to fixing a few things during training this week with the aim of a stronger performance next Saturday.

U14 "White" vs CC U14 "B" 39-26 win

The boys were pumped up for today ready to take on Christ’s College for their first home game. We conceded early points but it didn’t deter the boys who fought back with some outstanding tries. Christ’s College came back at us but the boys dug deep. It was an outstanding effort with the boys definitely starting to get to know each other and the boys who had their first run out for the team being a valuable addition to the team. The sideline couldn’t stay quiet with the fantastic effort from all the boys!

U55kgs vs CBHS U55kgs 24-31 loss

You could not ask for better playing conditions for this return match against Boys' High. It was another hard physical encounter between these two energetic teams. The first half saw the lead seesaw between the two teams and after 3 good tries to Josh Snelgar, Jack Sparrow and Jake O’Sullivan both teams went into the half time break even at 17-17.Things got a bit disjointed for Bede's early in the second half and Boys' High took advantage of this and managed to shuffle the ball out wide to their speedster winger who ran in two unanswered tries within as many minutes. This left Bede's chasing the game and after Jake scored another try which was quickly drop kick converted by Joseph it looked like another late comeback might be on the cards. Unfortunately we ran out of time and the final score was Boys' High 31-St Bede's 24.Once again I was really proud of the way our boys never gave up and fought right until the final whistle. I’m sure the next encounter between these two sides will be just as entertaining!!! Well done boys. Player of the day went to Leo Lewis, for his outstanding commitment to the breakdown. Tackler of the day went to Jacob Fraher, having a lock tackle like an open side flanker is a great asset to have in any team.

And a big thank you for the wonderful sideline support from our awesome parents👍👍