Gloucestershire County Festival Cirencester Rugby Football Club Sunday 16th March

We were drawn in Pool A alongside Stroud, Old Patesians Vandals, Hucclecote and our friends Old Bristolians. The matches were 7 minutes each way with 2 minutes for half time – so every minute of play was important.

First match was against Stroud and the team were alert and defending and attacking well.

The backs were spinning the ball along the line and displayed to the coaches what they had learnt. Callum O’L drove through with ball in hand and the tacklers got to work – tries appeared from Stroud and we were 3 – 1 down at one point but we dug in and levelled the score when the final whistle blew. Real determination and team effort – our defence on their try line was very impressive.

Final Score North Bristol 3 Stroud 3 Try scorers Charlie H Sid P and Callum O’L

After a break and lots of water consumed we were then up against Old Patesians Vandals who had played against Hucclecote and been beaten 1 – 0. Again real team effort with strong tackles from Sid P Tom S Ollie R Sam D Charlie S and a try saving tackle from Charlie

A we did not allow them across our try line. We didn’t get over theirs but the whistle blew after some very determined play.

Final Score North Bristol 0 Old Pats 0

Another break and more water consumed – Jason Hole had to run across to the tap for a refill of the bottles. Then we were playing Hucclecote who had been beaten by Old Bristolians 1 – 0. Hucclecote got across our line and scored but again we dug in and Jo F Charlie H and Charlie A showed us their tackling skills – Charlie A put in the best tackle of the all the games the ref had seen – so he told us later. All was not lost as Charlie H used his usual strength and determination to get across the line and then the final whistle blew .

Final Score North Bristol 1 Hucclecote 1

Even more water and a break and the final match of the pool against Old Bristolians who had beaten Stroud 5 – 0 Hucclecote 1- 0 and Old Pats 2 – 1. We knew this was going to be a tough game but in the scrum we pushed them back and tackled hard and Charlie H ran the length of the pitch ball under his arm and was brought down 3 feet off the line – almost but not quite! We gave OBs a tough game and it was a shame the 14 minutes came when it did as we would have put points on the board.

Final Score North Bristol 0 Old Bristolians 2

I write these match reports regularily and this was the best I had seen the team play. I can only heap praise on the whole squad – they worked hard, communicated well, tackled hard, kept ball in hand, passed well, didn’t fumble and showed all the teams they played that North Bristol is a team to fear. Charlie H is school mates with 7 of the Old Bristolian players who told him on Monday morning how impressed they had been with NBs performance and the improvement in their play. The last time we played OBs in a full time match they beat us 89 – 7 and 28 – 0. Well done guys.

OBs went through to the next round and were beaten in their play off. We missed out in going through for the plate playoffs by 1 try.

Tackler of the Matches Charlie A and Man of the Matches Ollie R Congratulations.

Finally Tony was so impressed with the teams performance I noticed a damp eye behind his sun glasses!!