Aluredian
66
G
ood tries by Harry Heal and
James Walsh got our season
off to a bright start against
Canford. James Walsh
scored in the second half,
but Canford came back into
the game to shade a narrow victory. We were
much weakened by injury against Clifton, and
though there were strong performances by
James Walsh and Hugo Segrave, we could not
quite match the physicality of the Clifton team,
who punished our mistakes clinically.
After a superb battling team performance
against a strong Plymouth College side, we led
at half-time against Blundell's, thanks to tries
by Tom Drysdale and Matt Harden, but made
too many mistakes in the second half.
We started strongly at Cheltenham, but an
injury to Alex Dathan knocked us off our stride,
and it was uphill work after that. An excellent
break by Harry Heal at Bristol Grammar School
and a well-timed off-load by Guy Jones led to a
good try. But it was hard work the following
week when we hosted Monmouth.
After a run of difficult fixtures, it was good to
finish the season with two outstanding victories
against local opposition. At Queen's we
showed that we were capable of playing good
rugby, and enjoying quality possession, we
were able to score freely to finish comfortable
48-5 winners.
Then against Taunton School, two tries by
skipper Tom Drysdale set up a very satisfying
17-13 win. Alex Scharf also scored in a
terrifically upbeat conclusion to the season.
A
pproaching our first game of
the season, we found
ourselves already weakened
by injuries to the 1st and
2nd XVs, but nonetheless we
put on a spirited display
against Canford, typified by some outstanding
tackling. We came out strongly against Clifton,
but were eventually overrun by clearly superior
opposition.
We lost down at Plymouth College, but like the
2nds, showed great fighting spirit and a huge
amount of determination all afternoon. We
were up against it for most of the game against
Blundell's, but the highlight of our performance
was skipper Ollie Preece blasting through six
tackles in a 50-metre dash to score a
spectacular try!
We lost two players to the 2nds during the
course of our match against Cheltenham
College, but worked hard to restrict our wellorganised
opponents. And it was a similar
story the following week against Monmouth,
a disappointing defeat, but we played plenty of
good rugby.
We ended our season against Taunton School
as we started, significantly under-strength, but
Andy Leung proved an inspirational captain,
and Lloyd Griffiths, the Duncan twins, Sam
Vickery and James Gray worked hard all
afternoon, the hallmark of our tricky season.
3rd XV
2nd XV half-back Harry Heal breaks
through the Canford defence
2nd XV