Rugby Competition

22 November, 2014

Chester Leung 11B

 

 

As the school year started, so did our inter-school competitions. To be honest, most of our team was not in the best of shape to play in such a contact-heavy sport. But what we had was the heart to fight on! We had the will to keep up our competitive spirits even in the face of extreme adversity.

 

For a few of our matches we had to play with at least one man down. That meant we were six going up  against seven (for those of you less familiar with the rugby 7s game). This also meant that there were no substitutes, but still we had to pour it all out on the field for the fifteen minutes that we were playing. Playing six versus seven meant that we had to run more than the other teams, hustle more to defend and tackle the man and the extra one on the wing. We had to be extra vigilant and not let up for a second, nor let players slip through our defense.

 

Although we were one player down, we were able to move the ball well, tiring their players and finally breaking through their wing defender to score a try in the two games we played. We had a full roster and a few extra players the next time we played. The extra muscle proved to be one of the reasons for we won more games.

 

Despite our disadvantage in size, our team was able to bring down opposing players like pushing down dominoes. We put all our might into bringing the other team down with every tackle. Our defense was like a stone wall. It would not buckle as we moved and stood together to negate every attempt at scoring a try against us.

 

In our attacks, we would send the ball wide into the wing, attempting to outmanoever their defensive line, and returning the ball back to the other side, tiring out the defense as they struggled to keep up with our ball movement. Suddenly, one of our players penetrated their defensive line while they were slacking and catching a breath, breaking through and rushing to score a try.

 

This continued on for a few games, where we regained our footing to get back into the mix with the other teams. Our efforts pushed us to the third-tier shield finals, where once again, due to injuries, we were down a player. Our players were playing bravely, bearing the cuts and bruises accumulated over the past battles. We managed to score a try even while outnumbered, but our defense could not hold up to the explosive athleticism of our opponents, and we fell to their team, losing out on the shield.

 

Still, we learnt a lot about trusting our teammates. After all, we played the best rugby we could and left our all out there. We played the hardest and that is all that matters.