Dominant Everett Too Strong For Rivals

8 January 2015

Senior members of Everett House ignored the greasy weather conditions yesterday afternoon to register an impressive victory in the first inter-house sporting competition of 2015. The boys in red fielded a strong 11-man squad for the Senior House Rugby 7s event, who secured six consecutive victories to wrap up the title in resounding fashion.

Boys in Years 11-13 were eligible to participate in competition, which took place on New Field. Each House team played six 10-minute fixtures in a round-robin format, with four points awarded for a victory, two points for a draw and one point for a loss. Free-flowing rugby was rewarded with a bonus point on offer for any team which managed to score three or more tries in one match.

Welsh House were the early pacesetters, with three emphatic victories putting them at the top of the table. However, a disallowed try in the last second cost them victory against Orchard Bevan and the defeat against Everett which immediately followed effectively ended their chances. Bevan claimed second place, with their only defeat coming against the champions.

There can be no doubt that Everett deserved their victory, with fast-paced attacking rugby earning a bonus point in all but one of their matches. Their strength in depth, combined with outstanding fitness and determination, gave them the edge over opponents in the challenging schedule of matches. Often teams were required to return to the pitch instantaneously for their next game, which is where the squad rotation available to Everett proved so valuable.

In the bottom half of the table, the battle for fourth place went down to the final game between Skipwith Wells-Furby and Burr House, who both finished with two wins. Kick off was decided with a Haka face-off, and in the end the yellows proved more intimidating as they recorded a bonus point victory. Orchard Lapping and Skipwith Eggar played out the only draw of the competition, but Lapping avoided the wooden spoon thanks to a hard-fought win over Skipwith’s other side.

Everett Housemaster Mr Amstrong commented: “All players played very well and their success was very much a whole team effort. It is difficult to single out a particular star man, although Anthony Miarli did score three excellent tries, two of which were decisive in crucial matches.”

Mr Armstrong, assistant coach of the senior rugby squad, will no doubt have been impressed with the talent on show, as he and Mr Beckett begin to think about their squad for several rugby 7s tournaments later this term.

Everett Squad: Hassan Rubbani, Chris Baker, Rory O’Conor, Will Urquhart, Toby Orchard, Greg Cooke, Will Clarke (Captain), Anthony Miarli, Charlie Proctor, Markus Grun, Freddie Ireland.

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