The 1st XV team won a great game against The Skinners’ School, 26-23. The first half was one of best performances of season with tries from James Biss, John-Tobi Agboola and Edward Thompson and Joe Leigh who converted two of them. Sam Hutchings scored in the second half to make the game safe.
The 2nd XV team continued their excellent season with another impressive performance against The Skinners’ School. Although the team were missing several players, this did not affect the style of play or attitude that the team displayed. The Skinners’ School could not cope with the powerful running of Oliver Berg and Davis Francis with George Salter linking the play to release the ball to George Jackson and Toby Baldwin who continually posed problems for the defence. Eltham raced into the lead with tries by James Eckel, Toby Baldwin, Oakley Hill-Smith and Tanner Kisic. A solitary try for the opposition made the score 24-7 at half time. The Skinners’ School asked to go to uncontested scrums soon after half time which affected the intensity of the game which suited them and they managed to score a couple of quick tries to even the game up a little. However, a late onslaught from the Eltham team saw George Jackson, Oliver Berg and Davis Francis scoring tries to give a final score of 41-19.
The Under 16A team lost to a well organised Skinners’ School outfit. They started slowly, maybe due to a disjointed warm up and pitch alteration, either way, missed tackles saw them 3 tries down in quick time. However, from that point they put in a more spirited performance, with excellent defence from George Ennis, and Zaki Boudjemaa, plus some promising attacking moments from Ashley Sewell, Conrad Scrivener and Frankie Nella. The final score was 27-0, and a big week of training is required to win our final game of the season against St Olave’s Grammar School.
Our Under 15A team fell just short of victory against a strong Skinners’ School side. Our first half performance contained too many errors which Skinner’s capitalised on scoring three tries to race into a 19-0 lead. The second half was totally different with Eltham scoring three good tries through Archie Rowbotham, James Lambton and Juan Chanthrakumaran with James converting one. Despite getting close, the final score was 19 – 17 to The Skinners’ School.
The Under 15B team were facing big opposition who controlled much of the match. A strong defensive display and a breakaway try by Christian Weeks meant that Eltham led 7-0 at half time. Eltham spent much of the second half trapped in their 22 but stayed resolute and forced errors from the opposition to end up 7-5 victors.
The Under 14A team backed up their Cup winning week with a hard fought 19-19 draw vs The Skinners’ School. A 19-5 lead at half time was not enough given the slope and Skinners used this to their advantage in the second half to draw level.
The Under 14B team showed real resilience and determination in playing with such intensity against a strong and relatively well organised Skinners’ team. After conceding an early try, the boys recovered well with some lovely runs from Charles Nortey and a spectacular bit of team play from Ed Botes and Ben Lewis to win 26-17. They continue their unbeaten run.
The Under 14C team lost 44-12 but gained plenty of positives from the match, including a ‘man of the match’ performance from Tom Gill.
The Under 13A team struggled against a big Skinners’ School side. They were well beaten and it was a tough day for the Eltham boys. Lewis Stone did his best to keep the boys going but it wasn’t our day. Hopefully we can move onto our final game and finish the season on a high.
The Under 12A team had a 5-1 win on Friday afternoon away at The Skinners’ School. Dominic Wade lead from the front and put in an outstanding performance.
The Under 12B team put in a superb performance away at The Skinners’ School on Friday, winning 11 tries to 1. Will Stone broke through to open the scoring. Lucas Fonseka-Koon and Ben Bowler scored soon after as Eltham continued the early pressure. After some good defensive work for a period Eltham were back on top and Diego Golsby made a great break to score. Captain Thomas Sabattier also grabbed a try and Will Stone crossed twice more to claim a first half hat-trick. Tom scored a second try as well as Lucas picking up two more for a hat-trick of his own. Eltham conceded late on which was disappointing but Ollie Harris completed the scoring with a great run and finish.
