Written by George Geobey and Callum Carter

We had trained hard in the first few weeks of term with Mr Broad. We have three practices a week – two at lunchtime and one after school. Lots of people attended the practices so it was going to be difficult to get into the team.

In the first match we played, most of us hadn’t played before; we played against Newcastle Under Lyme who were quite an experienced team. We won 12-5 with tries by M. Butler (2) and converted by R. Davis who is our captain. The match was at home, it was hard work, but we all enjoyed it. Man of the Match was Michael Blades.

The next match was against Ivanhoe College, Ashby, who were much bigger and stronger than we were. H. Marshall got injured in the first half and unfortunately we lost against them 5-17. M. Leaver scored our try on a really rainy night home.

In our third match at home and without a loose head prop, Ryan Sawyer stepped in to play his first match. We beat a team from Sutton called Fairfax School 10-5, with tries from H. Marshall and M. Butler.

At King Edwards, Lichfield, away, we lost 5-14. H. Marshall scored our only try and the referee wasn’t helpful for us. I wasn’t particularly pleased with him myself and we had a try disallowed as well. One of their players scored a great conversion against us, but we played really well in the first half.

At home against Arthur Terry School on a Saturday morning we were quite nervous, but we won by an outstanding 57-0 with tries by Leaver (3), Butler (3), Davis (2), Marshall (1), Davis also converted (3), Butler (2) and Presdee (1). We were very proud of ourselves.

And so we have had quite a good start to Rugby at The Friary.

Our team squad: - Carter, Taylor, Presdee, Regan, Evans, Soleil, Craythorne, Leaver, Bayliss, Butler, Oswald, Derry, Wood, Reed, Geobey, Roughly, Carpenter, Clark, Scott, Bird, Plant, Blades, Breakwell, Davis, Marshall and Sawyer.