Yr 8 Gateshead Schools Final
'All the worlds a stage' I thought to myself as I arrived at Ryton Rugby club on a cold and windy Saturday morning. I tried to keep warm and vowed to take more unnecessary short hall flights in the near future and source my food exclusively from the southern hemisphere.
I had fifteen minutes in which to prepare my squad for 40 minutes that would define a dichotic season. We had played some inspirational rugby yet tasted bitter defeat, losing narrowly to a well drilled St. Bedes team in the county cup semi final in a game were we were hit by heavily by injury, a pitch that required crampons to play on, and a referee whom must have been ill during the impartiality module of his KS2 referees course... and forgotten his glasses.
Five minutes before Kick off I was called over to speak with the referee, he looked like a real jobsworth having at least 5 pens in each pocket and a spare pea for his whistle. I shook hands with the opposing captain and noted he had hate tattooed across one set of knuckles, and hate tattooed across the other. The letters on his left hand were far better than those on his right, relax I thought to myself he was only as hard as any other twelve year old with a tattoo... and right handed.
I signed up for Valacks' badmington club, ran for the hills, and vowed never to play rugby again. Nerves now replaced with excitement, I lost the toss but as the wind appeared to be blowing in all directions it was no major disadvantage, especially with a group of talented and determined set of forwards, set to receive the ball and atone for our premature cup exit earlier in the season.
Callum Farrage (the terminator) snarled at me, James Whitaker (the beast) roared to life, Sam Fyfe chatted to some girls on the sideline whilst Martin Turner did all he could to keep his hair dry. The ball came my way, I caught it cleanly let the games begin.
We dominated the first ten minutes and I earned my tash by making the fist breakthrough. We then held off some spirited attacking rugby from our plucky opposition, with kegs, Norton, Gumby, Fiddes and Turner putting in some committed tacking, with Fyfe instigating a few more 'extra curricular' techniques to prevent them from scoring, allowing us to go into the half time interval with a narrow 5 point advantage.
Some inspirational words (and colourful language) from Welchy ensued and we stated the second half with a new sense of vigour, Eyebrow leading his backs with purpose. Fyfe was on fire Norton was inspirational, both scoring fantastic tries in the second half to seal a memorable victory.
Reflecting on a season, coming to a close I am excited by the potential that this young team has. Not since the spice girls went their separate ways has so much talent existed in one group of people. Next stop Gateshead sevens, then South Africa and the world!!!
Connor Maddison Year 8 Rugby captain