Cambridge High take fight to St Kentigern

Cambridge High School first XV put in a courageous performance against Auckland secondary school champions St Kentigern College in their national co-educational rugby final in Rotorua on Sunday.

Despite being vastly undersized and given little chance by most before the game, Cambridge were in the contest at halftime, with the scores locked at 24-24, before the giant Auckland side pulled away to win 53-24.

Cambridge, who qualified for the final after a hard-fought 17-7 semifinal win over Christchurch’s St Andrew’s College two days earlier, looked to be facing the uphill battle many had predicted after conceding a try in just the second minute.

Shortly after, however, the underdogs were on the scoreboard when first-five Jarred Fletcher showed wonderful vision and execution of a cross field kick which resulted in a try to wing Josh Hansen. But the huge St Kentigern team looked in ominous form, adding two more tries midway through the first half.

Although they were starved of possession and forced to make countless tackles, led by loose forward Drew Bootten and second-five/captain Jono Feast, Cambridge fought back into the game.

Halfback Brogan Bayliss snaffled an intercept on halfway and raced away for Cambridge’s second try, before centre Josh Gascoigne scored after a magnificent weaving run to briefly give his side the lead.

St Kentigern were soon back in front with their fourth try but Cambridge refused to back down as No8 Isaac Van der Valk ran 25 metres off the back of a scrum to score right on halftime.

However, that was to be the end of the highlights for Cambridge as the amount of defending eventually took its toll, and St Kentigern ran away with the game, scoring five second-half tries to end the brave challenge.

Cambridge High’s co-coaches Wayne Bootten and Kerry Bayliss were understandably chuffed by the performance of their team.

“St Kents are considered one of the best first XV teams in New Zealand and are a high budget team – so hats off to our boys,” Bootten said. “To be 24-all at halftime was just an outstanding effort.

“But it just came down to size in the end. They were just too big and we had to tackle all day. We didn’t make a lot of mistakes but we just didn’t get much of the ball.”

The gutsy performance capped a memorable season for Cambridge which included a Waikato secondary schools finals appearance and silverware in both the Hong Kong international 10-a-side competition and the Otumoetai Toll Cup invitational tournament.

“No-one expected us to win, or even expected us to get a point in the game, so a performance like that just topped off an outstanding year,” Bootten said.

Cambridge’s breakthrough season could just be a sign of things to come with 17 of the 23 current squad members returning in 2012, while St Kentigern were obviously impressed by the Waikato side – already offering them a pre-season fixture for next year.