James reclaim rugby 10s crown

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Photos: Kathy Burke

James came out top of the pile in this year’s college rugby 10s tournament as they defeated holders Derwent 17-5 in the final to reclaim their crown.

The final was a repeat of last year’s decider, and James were able to inflict revenge on the men in blue, making up for a rare trophyless season last year and their narrow 13-12 semi-final loss to Alcuin in the XVs tournament last Wednesday.

Strangely, neither of the sides who made the final topped their group earlier in the day, with Alcuin beating Derwent to first place in Group 1 and Halifax topping James’ Group 2.

Alcuin went unbeaten in the group stages, first seeing off Langwith 17-0, the highlight coming in the form an an excellent Alex Cormack try set up by some classy work from winger Joe Cooper.

Derwent opened their campaign against Vanbrugh but they had to wait a while until Tolga Necar provided the impetus for his team to go on win the game 21-0. The captain scored first, before Alex Cochrane-Dyet and Jamie Criswell wrapped up the victory.

Derwent stayed on to face their opponents in the XVs final, Alcuin. The Red Panthers started the game the brighter, Alex Cormack at fly-half wriggled through the Blues’ defence to score a fantastic individual try. Cormack then turned provider as he sent Joe Cooper on his way to leave Derwent behind at half-time. Derwent had a better second half as they kept themselves in the opponents half but could not find a breakthrough till late-on as Charlie Clark ran through. It was too little as Alcuin’s 10-5 victory paved the way to them topping the group.

Langwith gave Vanbrugh a real scare as the men in yellow, who do not field a side for the XVs tournament and had only had a handful of training sessions, led until the final minutes. A superb individual try from Marinus Maris put them ahead but two last ditch scores ruined Langwith’s hopes of a fairytale victory as Vanbrugh sealed a 17-7 victory.

The final two games of Group 1 saw Alcuin defeat Vanbrugh 14-5 and Derwent beat Langwith 31-5, which put Alcuin and Derwent through to the cup semi-finals.

The first match in Group 2 saw James college record a convincing victory over Goodricke, as Alex Muntus, Anthony Matthews and Tom Prifti all ran in tires for James, with only a single try from Chris Smith at the end of the match serving as consolation for Goodricke.

Table-toppers Halifax started badly as they went down 21-5 to Wentworth- whose team was made up of a mix of University players and Barbarians, including York Sport President Sam Asfahani, who also played for Langwith. This meant that despite their victories they were unable to claim points and technically lost every game they played.

Halifax started out looked very solid, their passing game, especially, looking very sharp as they searched for an opening, and they shocked the favourites by drawing first blood. Greg Butler showed excellent awareness as he timed his offload to perfection, putting Tom Giles clean through for the first try of the game.

Wentworth dominated from there on in however, and went on to secure a comfortable victory.

Halifax suffered another defeat as they went down 15-10 to Goodricke, before Wentworth managed to claim victory over James by the skin of their teeth, as a missed conversion was all that separated the two sides. Wentworth went ahead twice, but were twice pegged back by James, in a very closely fought contest between the two strongest sides in the group.

Wentworth then demolished a weakened Goodricke side as the quality of the senior Wentworth players shone through. Jack Eastwood scored a hat-trick of tries in a rather one-sided match whilst Goodricke managed only a single try in reply.

Halifax shocked James with a 21-0 victory over the black swans in the final group game, but it was James who had the last laugh as they later went on to claim the trophy.

They first saw off Alcuin in the semi-final, whilst Derwent defeated Halifax, which set up a clash between Alcuin and Halifax for the 3/4th place play-off. Alcuin were seriously depleted by injury and were overcome by Halifax’s superior fitness, meanwhile Vanbrugh beat Goodricke 7-5 to claim 5th place.

The stage was now set for the final, and James came from behind to emerge the victors against a dogged Derwent side.

Derwent began the match looking the better side, putting together some dangerous passing moves early in the first half. And it was Derwent who drew first blood as Ed Kemp did incredibly well to ride a series of challenges as he charged over the try-line to put his team 5 – 0 up.

However, this seemed to serve as an abrupt wake up call to James’ Alex Muntus, who grabbed the game by the scruff of its neck, and in a great piece of individual skill collected his own kick, running through the middle of Derwent team to get his team right back in it before half-time.

The second half was a much more open affair, as both teams pressed for a winner, but neither seemed to find the quality necessary to outdo the other team. However, in the end, it was an absolutely outstanding pass from Jack Robirosa, collected by Alex Muntus, which carved Derwent open, as Muntus sprinted over the try-line for his second of the game.

Derwent pushed to try to draw level, however, James took advantage of this, as James won possession back, and spread the ball wide to Phil Scott, who burst down the flank to score, and finish the game off at 17 – 5. The score perhaps flattered James a little, but, in the end, they fought hard to grind out a deserved victory. Manager Benji Brummitt commented, ‘We’re massively proud, and it’s nice to finish term off on a high’.