Great Team Effort

After a long night of activities and films in the boarding house the boys took to the field, ready to take on fierce rivals, St Hugh's Carswell. The game started at a frenetic pace. Our forwards very much put themselves on the front foot with incredible physicality shown from every member of the pack and this was evident in the first scrum where we drove Carswell right back against the head and turned the ball over. The backs then had space to run against Carswell and show them what the Woodhall stock is made of, scoring 3 tries in 15 minutes. Most teams would find it easy to rest after this and Carswell had 7 subs ready to replace the tired legs. They then scored two tries in quick succession, this brought the score to 3-2 (STH) just before half time. The whistle blew, the ball went up and the game was back on. The boys in red didn’t let the late tries in the half bow their heads and with some riled up forwards we managed to get the ball into Ben Mc’s hands and he dotted the ball down to make it 4-2. After an intense battle in the midfield and some huge defensive hits from Louis C and offensive hits from Joseph S we managed to fend the pink and blues, however our efforts weren’t enough and this resulted in another try in the corner from Carswell. In typical St. Hugh's fashion the boys did not back down. George P giving us great service from the restart allowed Ben Mc and Henry B to chase and hold up the receiving players, allowing the forwards to come in and boss the Carswell boys off the ball. After many turnovers from Freddie N and Charlie H the ball was enjoying its fair share in both teams' hands. After a few decisions from the referee we were pinned back to our own ten where Carswell took a quick tap and go, the speedy Carswell ten decided to poke through a grubber kick to the winger and finish the game. Not if Ben Mc had anything to say about it, he pounced on the ball in cheetah like fashion and found a hole in the Carswell defence, switched on his F-16 like afterburners and raced to the try line to finish the game 5-3 (STH). A fantastic game of rugby to spectate with nothing but action all the way though. Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline topped off the moment followed with a few tears shed. Well done chaps.