Sandy Bay U16B Win Against USRC

As much as it is a cliché, a competitive sports league season—irrespective of sport or age category—is a marathon rather than a sprint. And so it has proven with the Sandy Bay U16 boys.

With eight-tenths of the league season completed, many of the boys have shown characteristics of their abilities, as well as a side of their personalities, that would not have emerged in a snapshot of just one, or even two, games.

The most recent game was a fine case in point. Notwithstanding the small issue that the game allowed the U16 boys to avenge their most recent defeat—against the same opposition, no less—what the lead up to, and the performance itself, showed was far more significant and meaningful as compared to the progression of the 60-minute game itself.

In terms of the lead up to the game, injuries caught up with the team. Ten days earlier, scrum half Aurelian was ruled out for two months with shoulder ligament damage. Similarly, flanker Andreas was also ruled out at the last minute as he awaits the results of an MRI to his leg. Non-injury related, saw the U16 boys lose captain and fly-half Andrew to a commitment that had been planned months earlier (as this was meant to be a free weekend when the fixtures were originally released). For non-injury-related reasons, three other NAG-level older boys also ruled themselves out for a second weekend in succession.

This was all especially damaging, reducing the squad to only 17 boys in all available, of whom at least two were carrying knocks.

What was of far greater significance was not the absentees, but rather those that chose to turn up for their team, on time, eager, and as mentioned, in some cases, carrying injuries. Their sacrifice for the greater good of the team was both extremely welcome and at the same time highly appreciated. The resulting resoluteness that emanated from this performance is, quite simply, difficult to overstate.

This was a classic back-to-the-walls performance which held the possibility to make or break the boys’ season. That it was against opponents (USRC) who had achieved their sole league win against Sandy Bay two weeks earlier in one of Sandy Bay’s most embarrassing defeats of the season all hung heavily in the air.

The Sandy Bay bench for the match was the shallowest and smallest it had been all season and the number of enforced positional changes were the greatest the team had experienced all season.

However, all these setbacks and disadvantages were cast aside with aplomb by the 17 boys, as soon as the referee blew his first whistle. This was a performance full of character, purpose, and single-minded determination. The boys played as a coherent team, showed how to support one another in adversity, and how to fight—collectively—for the team’s greater good.

That the score line of 42-22 reflected a 20-point difference in Sandy Bay’s favour was almost irrelevant by the end. This was a coming of age for the boys, a reflection of how to emerge victoriously form adversity, and quite simply the best team performance that the boys had put in all season. What the boys achieved, and hopefully learned through their experience from this game, went beyond rugby.

Naub