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New Zealand and Fiji tour pays off for Cathedral School
The recent Hereford Cathedral School rugby tour to New Zealand and Fiji this summer paid dividends as big crowds at Wyeside saw the their very young 1st XV cruise to back-to-back victories, beating Christ's College, Brecon by 14 points to 11 and handing out a defeat for the touring side from Ignatius Park College, Australia, by 3I points to 12. With the majority of the team staying next year and some excellent U16 players, the future looks bright for Cathedral School.
The experience of playing bigger and older players abroad has taught the team much about defence and the benefits of hard fast rugby. Even though they did not record a victory on the tour in both New Zealand and Fiji, every match was closely contested against the ever-competitive Southern Hemisphere players, and the reason for the tour came to fruition, to learn fast! That and the whole overall education of visiting these two incredible countries set up an historic victory against Brecon.
With the wind behind them in the first half Cathedral dominated from the first whistle. The more mobile forwards, in particular Harry Orgee at open-side, enabled Cathedral to win much ball. Spreading the play wide they failed to cross the opposition line on four occasions in the first twenty minutes. A mistake by the Cathedral backs saw the Christ's College ever-dangerous scrum-half run from the halfway to open the scoring.
Constant pressure from Cathedral, saw centre Tom Bates kick a penalty, quickly followed by a sharp try from Cathedral scrum half Edward Godsall, from a five metre scrum. Just before half time Bates increased the lead to make the score 11-5 to the home team at the interval. Christ's College then started to crawl back into the game through great support play for the ball carrier, for their forwards to cross for a well worked try. With the score at 11-10 the game was in the balance.
The dominance of the Cathedral pack took Cathedral close on two or three occasions again failing to emerge with any points to their credit. A missed penalty from Brecon saw Bates increase the difference at the other end shortly after to take the score to 14-11. With an exciting finish Cathedral managed play the game out for an excellent victory.
Ignatius Park College are one of four top rugby playing schools in the north of Queensland and were on their third tour of Great Britain in five years.
Against some hard hitting defence, as their boys play rugby league as well, Cathedral managed to scramble an early lead by Ralph Dickinson from the back of a defensive line-out from the touring side. Tom Bates converted to take a 7-0 lead. Playing very open and flowing rugby on a hard pitch, full back James Fletcher ran from the halfway line to finish a good move to further the lead to 14-0. Scrum half Edward Godsall again snippered another try from a quick penalty to take the score to 21 - 0 at half time.
With the Australian's wondering what had happened in the first half they started to rally their forwards and win quick ball for their very talented and dangerous backs. Two lapses in concentration and defence saw what the tourists could do. They ran in two quick tries both from their own half totally cutting up the home defence. With the score at 21-12 the game was slipping away from the Cathedral grasp. Jack Anthony at Number 8 started to set up good ball for Cathedral and it was his quick release that put Ralph Dickinson in for his second try. With the game now won Ian Budge finished the scoring to give Cathedral an excellent win over a strong Australian school team.
