Bridgnorth Endowed’s U16 rugby team came agonisingly close to defeating last season’s County Champions, Church Stretton, in a thrilling opening fixture that went right down to the final kick.
Bridgnorth made an impressive start, opening the scoring with a converted try. Stretton responded immediately from the kick-off, but Bridgnorth continued to apply pressure and scored and converted again to take a 14–5 lead into half-time.
The second half saw Stretton show why they were last season’s County Champions, creating several promising attacks. However, Bridgnorth’s defence stood firm and frustrated their efforts.
Eventually, Stretton found a breakthrough and converted to bring the score to 14–12. With Bridgnorth holding on to their narrow lead and the clock running down, a fumble at a lineout put pressure on the Bridgnorth forwards and resulted in a penalty.
Stretton opted to kick for goal and, with the very last kick of the game, sent the ball through the posts to snatch a dramatic 15–14 victory.
Despite the narrow defeat, it was an excellent performance from Bridgnorth, who showed plenty of promise against a strong and experienced Stretton side.
A huge thank you to Bridgnorth Rugby Club for hosting the fixture on the first-team pitch and helping to provide such a fantastic experience for our students.
PE teacher Steve Chase said: “We’ve been working closely with Bridgnorth Rugby Club over the past 12 months, and it’s fantastic to be able to build on that relationship and create more opportunities for our students to develop their rugby.”
“Today, our students have had the chance to be coached by three Bridgnorth Rugby Club legends – Ian Hill, Carl Owen and Niall Conner. Between them, they have hundreds of senior appearances and a huge wealth of experience, so there is an enormous amount for our students to learn from.”
We want to respond to the interests of our students and our community, and this is a great example of what we can achieve by working together. We are delighted that Ian will be returning to Bridgnorth this winter for some coaching sessions ahead of this season’s County Cup.”
A fantastic start to the rugby season, and one that shows just how much potential this U16 team has.
