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The Year 9 rugby team attended the Hampshire RFU tournament held at St Johns College playing fields. The festival was attended by 26 schools across Hampshire and the weather was warm and sunny which allowed some fantastic rugby to take place.
Mayfield was placed into a tough pool to begin the day with the highlight being Mayfield v Cantell school. Mayfield went into an early lead with Darius Gates showing great speed to run the length of the pitch to score in the corner. Mayfield defended superbly with some big tackles coming from Tommy Jerome, Harry Hamilton and Noah Cunningham. Mayfield managed to hold off Cantell’s pressure and then score another two superb team try’s with Darius Gates pace again finishing them off.
1st Pool Results:
Mayfield 5- 5 Wyvern
Mayfield 15- 0 Cantell
Mayfield 0- 20 Henry Beaufort
After Lunch the pools were re-seeded based on the mornings results. Mayfield were placed into Pool 3 out of 5.
2nd Pool Results:
Mayfield 5- 5 Hounsdown
Mayfield 5- 0 Alnewood
Mayfield 5- 0 Romsey
The highlight was our last game against Romsey. Mayfield could not afford to lose as this would have cost us from winning the Pool.
This was a very tough game for Mayfield as Romsey brought a lot of physicality to the game who could have easily been mistaken for a year 11 team. Mayfield quickly settled and learnt to put the ball through the hands to work the big Romsey players around the pitch to tire them out. A try saving tackle from the outstanding Harry Hamilton prevented Mayfield from going behind. This powered Mayfield on and they were rewarded with their efforts with Darious Gates again powering down the wing to score with only a matter of seconds remaining. This meant Mayfield finished the day on top of the pool.
The focus for the festival is that the players participating were having fun, learning and developing their understanding of rugby and to leave feeling positive about the game which I believe was certainly the case.
The Core Values of rugby were at the centre of the festival (Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship) which were reinforced throughout the day.
Overall an excellent performance from Mayfield and the students did the school proud and put us on the rugby map within the county. I have worked out we finished 9th out of 26 schools overall and we were the most successful Portsmouth school performing better than the likes of St Johns College, Springfield and Milton Cross.
