In March our 1st XV played the National Cup semi-final match against Trinity School from Croydon. Trinity won the competition last year and many of the boys on the field will have been part of that winning squad. Trinity is also a school considerably bigger than Blundell’s and at least 5 of their players have been in the England U18 setup. It would have been reasonable for Trinity to have expected a relatively comfortable win, after all, it was just a few months ago that they were playing at the World Schools Rugby Championship in Thailand where they were competing with the best rugby schools in the world.
The odds were certainly stacked against us but from the very first scrum Trinity knew they were in a fierce contest. At the beginning of the second half, we made the necessary adjustments to the lessons learnt from the first half and we dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half with Rocky scoring a terrific try and Ben knocking the conversion over from the touchline. We played with confidence, physicality, and tactical nous to keep Trinity in their own half.
Blundell's went on to have a try disallowed, our captain, Ben, left the field with a concussion and we conceded some penalties which switched the momentum in Trinity’s favour. Sadly, the win was not to be ours but if we put aside the result, the performance that the team put in against such illustrious opponents was hugely impressive.
We could not be prouder of them and the manner in which they represented the school on such a big stage.