84 / 118
back into the game. However, we finished
strongly, with Spiridonov in particular
playing exceptionally to take control of
the game. He scored a try which was
(importantly) converted by Capstick-Dale to
confirm victory.
Defeat against Ludgrove was a
disappointing end to the 15-a-side season
for the boys. Despite dominating possession
and territory early on, we missed three good
opportunities to score due to poor handling,
and this cost us the game. As a result, for all
our dominance we were only 5-0 up at half-
time. A poor start to the second half enabled
Ludgrove to touch down twice; although
there was time for us to create a number
of opportunities to retake the lead, we
snatched at them in our eagerness to score.
Painful as it was, this was a valuable lesson
about executing skills under pressure.
In the sevens season we made great
progress. A hard – and ultimately very useful
– day of rugby at the St John’s Beaumont
tournament saw us finish sixth in our group.
At St John’s Northwood we played with
much greater belief, especially in the final
group game against Moulsford. Our narrow
12-5 loss included a fantastic try: a great
chip-kick from Capstick-Dale being collected
beautifully by Russell, catching and scoring
in one fluid dive.
At the Caldicott sevens two early losses
were erased from the memory by an
excellent display in our final pool game which
saw us through to the Plate quarter-finals
against the Dragon. A fine performance
resulted in a solid win and a place in the
semis against New Hall. A 5-5 full-time score
resulted in golden score extra-time. Although
we lost, this was excellent preparation for the
Rosslyn Park sevens.
Our day at the world’s largest rugby
tournament was enjoyable and instructive.
A sloppy opening half in our first pool game
led to a 29-10 loss, compounded by the
departure to hospital of Murray who broke
his collar bone in an awkward fall. A much
improved performance and a 12-10 win in
game two gave us the opportunity to qualify
for the second round. However, despite
leading Port Regis 10-5 at half-time, we
were then outplayed and outscored. This was
the last fixture of the term and it was very
pleasing to be competitive at a national level.
School rugby is experiencing significant
change; playing conditions for the junior
sides in 2015-16 will be followed by changes
for U12s and U13s in 2016-17. Therefore,
with the top year playing 13-a-side next
season, this was the final Summer Fields
1st XV. The 2015-16 cohort were worthy
representatives of the last XV and we would
like to thank them for all of their effort and
application through the year.
DRW & SRF
“School rugby
is experiencing
significant change”
S u m m e r F i e l d s
2 0 1 5 – 2 0 1 6
80