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| Rugby 3rd XV Team 'Blog' |
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Saturday 11th November Third XV versus Moulsford Fourth XV In picking a squad of 18 players for this game, I felt that I had covered all eventualities but I reckoned without the Second XV needing 4 players, so by the break, there was suddenly a problem, which was compounded by Mathew Fitz-James going home as he was feeling unwell. Fortunately Sapan Maini-Thompson was keen to play. Things did not improve when the captain announced as we awere leaving that he had lost his mouth guard and another one had to be organised at Moulsford. The chaotic nature of our preparation meant that the warm up and team talk before the match consisted largely of re-arranging the team. Not surprisingly we did not start that well, especially as an injury to Edward Beedham in the first minute meant a further re-organisation and we were 0-22 down at half time in windy blustery conditions, but once again a much improved second half performance saw Eagle House score a good try through Will Price, while Felix Fowler was desperately unlucky to lose the ball over the line after a good weaving run. The opposition could only score 10 points in the half, making the final score 32-5. Credit must be given to the whole team for some great effort during the season, especially when we came up against bigger and more skilled opponents. It was this "never say die" attitude and spirit that made this team such a pleasure to coach. Wednesday 18th October Third XV versus Caldicott Fifth XV Won 26-20 This was an excellent game between 2 evenly matched sides. Caldicott had the lead for most of the game, courtesy of 4 tries from their big hard running wingers. However such is the spirit of the Eagle House team, that we kept coming back, also scoring 4 tries, 3 from Luis Argueso and 1 from Alex Heyre. The final try came with Eagle House down 19-20 with only 3 minutes remaining and pegged in our own 22. A big kick into space from Byron Coop saw Luis Argueso seize the opportunity to score our fourth try, making it 4 tries apiece. The difference between the 2 sides was the golden boot of Max Kirk who kicked all 3 conversions that he attempted, but it was a great team effort that saw Eagle House through this tightest of tight games. Saturday 14th October Third XV versus Papplewick Fourth XV Lost 0-25 This game was played in a good spirit and both teams enjoyed good surging runs up the field. The Eagle House defence was more organised this time and more pressure was put on the opposition. Eagle House came close to scoring on several occasions and it was only try saving tackles that kept out Mathew Fitz-James and Luis Argueso. Overall, this was a more consistent performance from Eagle House and hopefully we can maintain this standard in the future. Wednesday 11th October Third XV versus The Beacon Third XV Lost 10-42 When The Beacon scored their fifth try from the kick off at the beginning of the second half and their accurate kicker added the extra points to make the score 35-0, it looked like early showers would be the order of the day. However Eagle House began to see more of the ball and a passing movement the length of the field eventually saw Byron Coop sprinting for the corner for an excellent team try. This was followed by a fine individual effort from Luis Argueso (who was playing in his first game of rugby) which meant that the score for the final 23 minutes was 10-7 in favour of Eagle House. It was a pity that for so much of the early part of the game we allowed the opposition to run at us and through us to build up an unassailable lead. When we have the ball in hand, we are very good at passing and supporting, but at present we lack the commitment to defending.
Third XV versus Cranleigh Third XV The 3rd XV at Eagle House will always struggle against an opposing Third team if that school has the numbers to field a Fourth team. This was the case in this match and although Eagle House lost 52-5, there were some good individual moments, most notably Alex Notley’s barging run which led to a good try. We were stronger in the scrums but did not commit enough people to the rucks and mauls to stop the opposition winning the ball and our tackling also let us down.
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