The Friary - 22 Uppingham County High School - 7

The Friary met opposition from Rutland in this quarter final match. The visitors were really surprised at the condition of the Friary pitch, and so were we. The pitch was in really good condition, despite the large amount of rain falling on it over the past week.

Friary started really strongly with the pack carrying lots of ball forward and making good yardage. After ten minutes of territorial advantage, Sam Craddock crashed over for the first try. Unfortunatley, he was injured in the act of scoring and Friary also lost skipper Jo Meehan in the build up to the try. Both were replaced by Seb Finkle and Daniel Clark.

Friary tackled well and never let Uppingham venture into their half. Near misses by Elliot Jacob and Matt Gough were soon followed Ben Robinson's try as he crashed over from short range. Matt Gough kicked the conversion. With Adam Butler and Jake Colder having very impressive games, further pressure was rewarded when Friary quickly moved the ball into space for Jack Hollinshead to dive over triumphantly. The half time whistle blew as Friary had to make another replacement as Matt Roskell took a blow in the face.

Half time score 17-0

Uppingham fought back strongly in the second half, but superb defence and tackling by all the Friary players meant the opposition could not score. James Ingram at full back had plenty to do and made ground with several of the characteristic mazy runs. Tom Harrison ruled the line outs.

Friary put the game out of Uppingham's reach with good handling in the backs which set up Joel Nolan, who made good ground before setting up Matt Gough who used his pace to finish off the try with a 25 metre run.

To their credit Uppingham kept battering the Friary defence and after conceding three quick penalties Friary cracked on full time when their opponents scored a converted try under the posts.

Final score 22-7.

A really good performance - well done.

Friary now play in the semi finals - both will be played at Coventry on February 25th.

Players involved were: - J. Ingram, M. Gough, J. Hollinshead, B. Robinson, J. Leaver, J. Meehan, A. Hunter, A. Anderson, S. Finkle, J. Nolan J. Colder, M. Roskell, S. Craddock, A. Fielding, L. Parker, D. Clark, A. Butler, E. Jacob, H. Carpenter, and T. Harrison.