U14s at Nando's Cup

The boys can look forward to playing in front of an Ashton Gate crowd of some 15,000 (less those who have headed for the bars) having made it through to the final of the Nandos Cup for the second year running.

We beat last year’s cup final opponents Cleve 15-5 in the semi-final with an outstanding display of running rugby in this 10-a-side format in which games are 10 minutes’ long.

Determined not to get drawn into the type of forwards tussle that saw us lose to Cleve on a muddy pitch in the final of the Bristol Combination Cup, we made the most of the quick artificial surface at the Wise campus in Filton and moved the ball around.
Some slick handling in a five minute burst brought us three ties and secured the victory.
It was irresistible stuff with tries from Matt after an unnecessary back-of-the-hand off-load from Herbie, Ryley after a lovely run from Luke and Dom after great play from everyone!

Our “finishers” then came on and wrapped up the victory in a way that England’s couldn’t manage in Dublin the day before.

So our final will be played under floodlights against Winscombe during half-time of the Bristol v Gloucester match on Friday night.

The game will have to be finished on time to allow the Premiership boys to resume – so hopefully Wayne Barnes won’t be reffing our match.

We reached the final with group wins against a Barbarians side (35-0), Southmead (5-0), Broad Plain (20-5) and St Brendan’s (35-0), with a draw against Clevedon (10-10).

Our try scorers were Matt (6), Sam R (5), Dom (6), Owen (1), Elliot (2), Ryley (2) and George (2).

But huge credit must also go the excellent defensive effort from every player which enabled us to concede just 4 tries in the course of scoring 24.

Add to that some great mauling and ball stealing from other players and it was all in all a real squad success.

Well done, boys. It was the lift the English and Welsh among us needed.

What more motivation do the boys need for the final than the prospect of a Nandos chicken and chips platter – or two.

Hamish