St Mary’s Men’s 1st XV Win Combination Vase

St Mary’s Men capped off a great season with an ultimately convincing win over Bristol Saracens by 29 – 22 in the Butcombe sponsored Bristol Combination Vase at a packed Lockleaze Sports Centre.  This is our second successive cup win after winning the Combination Bowl last season.

Before the game Club legend Marcus ‘Village’ Jenkins led out the men in Green and Black to mark his 500+ senior appearances and his last competitive game before retiring from playing at the end of the season.

Although Mary’s had already beaten Sarries twice in the league campaign, they were a different and highly motivated proposition spurred on by a record crowd, including many old boys from Saracens who were dressed up for their Annual Awards Dinner scheduled immediately after the game.

Mary’s took an early lead with a penalty from Will Redwood before Saracens pressured Mary’s into a mistake deep in their 22 and scored smartly under the posts, moving into a 7-3 lead.  Mary’s struggled to get into their patterns as the Sarries defence pressed and closed down space.  The forward battle was intense with strong running from Jon Booth and carries by Keith Wilkinson and Ross Littlefield, who was chopping down any Saracen’s attack with gusto.  Following a breakout by Mary’s skipper Sheppard, the ball was recycled through several phases and Mary’s Players’ ‘Player of the Season’ Hayden Saunders went over for a well worked try, converted by Redwood.  The teams cancelled each other out for the remainder of the first half with a further penalty exchange leaving the game finely balanced at 13-10 to Mary’s.

The second half saw Mary’s start to exert more control through their forwards, and the kicking of centre Robbie Woodward.  Key breaks in the backs by Adam Wilkins and Jordan Sheppard stretched the Saracen’s defence and their players started to tire, and a couple of yellow cards didn’t help.  Mary’s played with width and composure, a credit to the coaching of Ed Smith and Ryan Price and the crowd were delighted when Club Captain Andy Plummer raced over for a try in the corner, on the same ground that saw him rupture his cruciate ligament two years previously.

Saunders showed his quality shortly after with a crisp finish in the corner, but Redwood again was wide with the conversion.  The Mary’s bench made a real impact helping to close the game out.  Alastair Polis, Scotty Weston, Spencer Barrowman and Emilio Lewis were relentless for Mary’s continuing to pressure the Sarries line and two further penalties by Redwood resulted in stretching the lead to 29 – 10.   Sarries never gave up and a late flurry saw them peg the score back to 29 – 22.

St Mary’s Forward Jon Booth on the charge in the Vase Final

Our Women’s team rounded off a successful first season in Championship 2 South West following on from a promotion last season.  We are looking to strengthen and widen our squad in advance of next season.  Our philosophy focuses on developing players – we have already provided 3 players to Bristol Bears Women and 1 to Bath Ladies – so if you are ambitious, want to play at a high level and see how good you can be, come and join us!

Both our men’s and ladies’ sections are actively recruiting new players whether you have experience or not – come and join us on a Tuesday or Thursday at our Trench Lane Ground – Northwood Park, BS36 11RY you will be guaranteed game time and a very friendly welcome.

Touch Rugby at St Mary’s

Our Touch Rugby sessions are open to everyone and ho previous experience is necessary.  We usually play Monday evenings at the Club however we have also been to a couple of tournaments at Caldicot and Clifton RFC.   The Touch Rugby sessions run all throughout the summer and if you are looking for a way to get fit with none of the tackling involved in normal rugby then come and give our Touch Union sessions a try.

Minis and Juniors 

Our minis and junior teams are also on the lookout for new players.  The minis train on Sundays at 10am and all children as well as getting coaching and game time are provided with free meals after training.  This is part of our commitment to our local community. We currently run teams from the ages of 6 up to Under 15s as well as tots rugby for 4-6 year olds.  We have places available at all the above age groups and would be delighted to welcome you and your children to our family friendly club.

We were also pleased to see two of our long serving Junior players make their senior debut.  Sion Phillips and Thomas Byrne were both fantastic in their first senior game. Gerry, who coached the boys from the minis is also Thomas’s dad. A very proud day for Gerry as they all played on the same team.

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