Farewell to our Coach and Head of P.E
Many thanks to our inspiring coach Mr. French who has guided us through our rugby careers since year 7. He has had a huge impact in developing us as individuals and has influenced us massively as a team. Mr. French’s commitment and dedication in organising training sessions and games has improved the performance and success of our team. Mr. French has always put his team before himself giving up many of his lunch times and many hours after school.
The team were delighted to win Mr. French’s last ever game of school rugby winning the Selwyn Wyatt Cup at the Arms Park on Friday 4th April.
Year 9 win Selwyn
Wyatt Cup!
Year 9 Corpus Christi Squad before the game in the final at the Cardiff Arms Park.
6
The year 9 rugby team had another hugely successful year. A busy fixture list started with our quest to qualify for the Welsh Cup. Having won some very hard and competitive games against local high schools we travelled to our rivals Glantaf to battle it out to decide who would go through as group winners. Injuries to a number of players including our captain Nathan Crothers meant we played with a bare 15. Unfortunately we narrowly lost by a few points so we ended up qualifying second in the group. This meant we played Ystrad Rhondda in the first round. In unbelievably atrocious conditions their forwards won them the victory. The first half saw us play disappointingly, obviously not helped by the weather. However in the second half there was a dramatic improvement although it wasn’t enough to secure the win that everyone desperately wanted.
As we were devastated to be out of the Welsh Cup, we headed into the second half of the season to compete in the Cardiff 7’s tournament and the Cardiff Cup. The 7’s competition was held at Llandaff fields in glorious weather. A small group of players were chosen that were suited to playing 7’s. The team played extremely well and dominated the pool by finishing top of it, adapting to the different skills and style of rugby. Then we comfortably beat Whitchurch HS in the semi-final drawing Glantaf in the final. We were both evenly matched however we eventually came up short and Glantaf won. The final section of our season was in the Cardiff Cup. I think this was the part of the season where the boys truly came together and where the results truly reflected the effort we had put in throughout the year. An excellent win against Plasmawr saw us book ourselves a trip to the Arms Park for the final. The final was a very aggressive and high tempo game against the Cathedral School. The forwards were a very effective unit putting lots of pressure on the opposition and linking up with the backs when necessary to score some well worked team tries. Every member of the squad contributed to the unstoppable performance. The final score was 29-17, a huge result for the boys and Mr. French.
The team has had an immense season and look forward to building on their success and developing as a team next year.
Congratulations to Joshua Nolan, Connor Brooks and Nat Ahmed who played for Cardiff Schools against Millfield. They all played well and it was a good opportunity for the boys to experience playing for CSRU.
Report by Max Thomas, Year 9