Eagle House U13 7's team
                                                       Shrewsbury House 7's
                                                       Wednesday 5th March
 
Wow.  What a performance from the 'heavies' (those boys who play in the U63kg category)!!
 
This must rank among the very best performances from an Eagle House team at a rugby tournament.  It is certainly the best performance by an Eagle House team at the Shrewsbury House 7's on record.
 
All the boys were superb and played out of their skins to get to the semi-final of the Cup (main competition).  And it could have been even better with the team less than 30 seconds away from victory in the semi-final, only to concede a try in the dying seconds.
 
The Shrewsbury House tournament attracts the best 7's teams from a large part of the South of England and a great deal of schools much larger than Eagle House.  Yet the boys were not daunted as they battled, battered and sidestepped their way to some excellent performances.
 
Group Game 1:  vs St. John's Beaumont : Eagle House won 12 - 0
One try each for Kevin Akunwa and Tom Inglis and one drop-goal conversion for Tom Fowlie.
For a first match, this was excellent!  We played open and carefree rugby with everyone doing everything right.
 
Group Game 2:  vs Rokeby : Eagle House won 19 - 17
Two tries for Tom Ingis, one try for Haider Rubbani and two conversions for Tom Fowlie.
A missed conversion by Rokeby in the dying seconds gave us victory after we gifted them a number of tries with some bad tackling.
 
Group Game 3:  vs Dulwich : Eagle House lost 0 - 22
Dulwich pulled our tiring defence all over the pitch and scored in the corner for 3 of the 4 tries.
 
Quarter Final of the Main Competition:  vs Cumnor House : Eagle House won 19 - 5
One try each for Saxon Coop, Tom Inglis and Tom Fowlie, who also scored 2 conversions.
This was possibly the best performance of the tournament, having gone down by a try early in the game, to come back so strongly and with style was a joy to watch.
 
Semi-Final of the Main Competition:  vs Danes Hill : Eagle House lost 22 - 28
Three tries from Tom Inglis and one try from Tom Fowlie who scored one conversion.
This was a tit-for-tat game with each team scoring one after the other, making it an excellent game for the spectators!!
Last man tackling was the issue here and we know, with absolute certainty, that we need to dive for the legs to bring the man down in future.
 
The Shrewsbury House 7's Squad were:
 
Tom Inglis (7 tries)
Tom Fowlie (2 tries and 6 conversions)
Haider Rubbani (1 try)
Kevin Akunwa (1 try)
Saxon Coop (1 try)
Alex Mitchell
Jin Hong
Matthew Fitz-James
 
Superb boys, absolutely superb!
 
Now we head to the Nationals on Monday with the knowledge that we can beat anyone (as long as those diving tackles on the wing are made)!!!!

Under 13 Rugby 7's team at Caldicott

                                                                   Wednesday 27th February
 
Our U13 team performed very well to get to the Plate semi-final in this tournament and showed that they have a great deal of potential.
 
But for a few positional and passing mistakes, we could have done even better!!
 
Our first match was against Clifton School.  We took the lead after only 1 minute with Tom Inglis running in a try and Tom Fowlie converting.  We looked strong and in control, but then a gap in midfield meant Clifton scored and converted too.  The game finished a draw at 7 - 7.
 
Our second match was against The Oratory School.  Again we took the lead through Tom Fowlie but we allowed The Oratory back in the game with some sloppy defending and although Tom Inglis scored a try in the second half, we again let the win slip through our fingers and we lost 14 - 19.
 
Our third match was against The Dragon School.  Once more we took the lead through Tom Inglis who scored twice in the game but were very unlucky to lose this after a penalty try was awarded against us for a high 'scrag' tackle very near the line and then literally gifting  a try to The Dragon after we failed to kick the ball when we were in trouble.  Having missed one conversion, Dragon needed to put theirs over to win the game in the last seconds, which they did.  I couldn't believe that we hadn't won.
 
So, we came 3rd in our section, having scored more points than Clifton and were in the Plate competition.  We met Danes Hill here, one of the biggest prep scholls in the country and went down a try in the first half.  However, we came back very strongly and scored 2 excellent tries through Tom Inglis and Tom Fowlie to win 14 - 7.
 
Bring on the Plate semi-final against Downs School.  They were a very well organised team and scored a try almost at will as our defence were sucked into the middle and they hit us around the wing.  We fought hard but were unable to match 'Downs' and the game and our tournament finished on a score of 7 - 0.
 
In particular Tom Inglis with 5 tries and Tom Fowlie with 2 tries deserve mention and Richard Bishop tackled and ran at everything, but for me the one boy who really took on board what I had said about keeping possession and supporting on the shoulder and who shone in our team was Saxon Coop.  An excellent performance!  Nikolai Malyguine also played well in the last few games, running fast up to the opposition to put them under pressure and making tackles and Alex Mitchell tackled well too.
 
Although, in effect we only won 1 match, having gone a try up in every match in our section (especially against Dragon and Oratory Schools who are much bigger than us) we could and should have won all three.  The boys understand that we have a huge potential and have learnt from their mistakes in these 5 matches. 
 
Bring on the Shrewsbury House tournament next week when a Year 7 team will also be playing at an Under 51kg lightweight tournament at Windlesham.  We will show them then how good we are.