TO say our Year 9 Rugby Tour to Cornwall from October 22nd-24th was action-packed would be a slight understatement!
Fifteen students enjoyed the three-day trip, which was our first Rugby Tour for three years.
Henning Kaaber, Director of Sport at King’s Ely Senior said: “Our first stop was at Burford School in Oxfordshire. The journey was clearly still in our players’ systems as Burford raced into an early 12-0 lead, and we had to show resolute defence, none more so than Man of the Match, Alfie Robson, to prevent Burford from extending their lead. King’s finally started to settle, retain possession and build phases, and tries from Jack Hammond, Austin Gardiner and Quentin Mitchell saw King’s go into the break 19-12 up. In the second half, King’s had to fight hard for possession but gradually took control and ran in three further tries through Ted Hall (2) and a second from Jack Hammond , with Ted converting all five scores, before Burford scored a late reply to see the final score at 35-19.
“The drive to Cornwall’s Treyarnon Bay took longer than expected due to the heavy half term Friday evening traffic but a late arrival didn’t prevent a warm welcome and dinner at our Youth Hostel. The following morning, the squad took to the sands at Treyarnon for some beach rugby before heading into Newquay to enjoy some coasteering around the headland.
“A mizzling (as it’s known west of the Tamar) Sunday morning saw the team heading east to face Launceston Rugby Club, better known as the Cornish All Blacks, for the second match of the tour. On first view, the opposition were a physically imposing sight so the game plan focused on keeping the ball alive and moving the opposition around the park. After a frenetic and error-strewn start where both sides struggled to keep the slippery ball in hand, the team started to execute and Keane Savage was first to gallop away for a long range try, which was quickly followed by joint Man of the Match, Jacob Honeyman, driving over from close range. Keane doubled his tally soon after, before Jacob Coe danced down his wing, standing his opposite number up before turning on the afterburners for a great individual score, and Austin Gardiner added another try to see us enter the break 25-0 up. The second half continued in the same vein, Austin finishing off a superb handling team move, before joint Man of the Match, Jack Hammond, and Fin Stroud finished the job and ended the tour with a 40-10 win. An excellent team performance and a number of outstanding individual efforts saw three Man of the Match awards given to Jacob H, Jack and Ted Hall.
“Following a welcome chicken and chips lunch and warm hospitality from Launceston, the tour party returned to Newquay for a surf session to wrap up the tour ahead of the long drive home to Ely, returning just before midnight. Thanks must go to Mr Aguilar and Mr Batty for all their hard work in making the tour a reality, to our driver, Jason, who was always ready and willing to go the extra mile, and to all the boys who were fantastic ambassadors for King’s Ely.”