St Marys College 22 Sirius Academy North 18

The Sirius Academy North Year 11 Boys lost out in the final second of the game to St Marys by conceding a late try, which puts them out of the Hull Schools Trophy Final and the Yorkshire Plate.

The game didn’t start well for Sirius North as they conceded a try on St Marys first attack, when they scored in the corner for an early 6 – 0 lead. The Sirius response was immediate as they got their way down field in their next set of six, with strong runs from Hamza Ghorbandi, Lee Rumble and Ryan Williamson. This put Sirius in good field position and smart play from hooker Lennon Jennison saw him scoot over from acting halfback, showing great vision to score under the sticks 6 – 6. St Marys got their lead back with a try down the right-hand side as they powered their way over, the kick was unsuccessful to make it 10 – 6. Harrison Collins, along with debutants Kane Smith and Innocent Okojie were getting more involved in the game and got us to within twenty meters of the St Marys line for Cody Welham to put in a smart kick which was knocked on by the St Marys player, Isaac Gray was first to react and kick the ball into the in goal area to touch down. The conversion was unsuccessful to make it 10 – 10. Sirius were well on top in the later stages and got a penalty under the sticks just before the halftime whistle, and converted to go in 12 – 10 leading at the break.

The second half both teams cancelled each other out, with the defensive qualities on both sides looking good. Zak Kareem and Abdullah Syed were getting tested out wide and stood up to the task. However, it was St Marys who completed their set well and went over for a try which would put them back in front at 16 – 12. Once again, the response from Sirius was outstanding, Lennon Jennison was dictating play well from acting halfback and making good meters on the scoot. In broken play up stepped speedy fullback Callum Bamforth who showed his pace and agility to go 80 meters, but just lost his footing 10 meters out from the tryline, Cody Welham noticed the defence of St Marys were all still making their way back and went over himself to put Sirius North back in the lead with 6 minutes remaining. Cody converted his own try to make it 18 – 16 in the favour of Sirius North. Sirius knew they needed to just complete their sets and put in a good kick, which they did well. They also defended like trojans when St Marys attacked, and Year 10 Oliver Webster fielded the ball extremely well on the last tackle. In the last minute of the game, Lennon Jennison was deemed to have knocked on ten meters out from the Sirius North tryline. The scrum was formed, and the referee allowed St Marys to have four tackles, in which they managed to go over on the fourth and break the hearts of the hard working 13 boys from Sirius North as the referee blew the whistle after the conversion. Rightly so the boys were extremely disappointed, but also knew that they played extremely well and could be proud of their last performance for the Academy.

May I take this opportunity to thank the Year 11 Boys on their commitment and effort since Year 7. They have improved massively over the last 5 years as a group, and it showed in this game, as our first ever game was against St Marys and we lost by a considerable amount, however 5 years on and we just lose out in the last play of the game.

Please congratulate the boys on their outstanding performance, resilience and teamwork:-

Callum Bamforth, Zak Kareem, Oliver Webster (Year 10), Kane Smith, Abdullah Syed, Isaac Gray, Cody Welham, Hamza Ghorbandi, Lennon Jennison, Lee Rumble, Innocent Okojie, Ryan Williamson and Harrison Collins.

Special Thanks to Ellie for her continued support with the boys rugby.