Saturday the 28th of January the Amano U19 and U16 rugby teams went off to Chengelo for a rugby festival. There were three different age groups U14, U16 and U19. Things quickly changed upon our arrival, we discovered that it was not an U19 festival but a ten-a-side open tournament for the U19’s. With that said there two pools each consisting of three teams. In pool A was Masaiti, Lechwe and Chengelo A. In pool B was Amano, Temwani and Chengelo B.
Our first game was against Temwani, [a developing team]. It was very scrappy with lots of poor passes and catches made by the team; fortunately we won that game 17-0. Our next game was against Chengelo B and we played noticeably better. Chengelo B put up a good fight as we scored no tries in the first half of the game but, this soon changed in the second half as we were able to score two tries and a conversion, beating them 12-0.
By winning our two pool games we qualified for the 1st place final against Chengelo A. It was the final match of the day and Amano was not only going to face a determined team but also two ex-students Chigo and Andrew. We started off kicking to Chengelo and were soon pushed back to the tri-line and this is where the team’s "bean field" motto stood out and we managed to push Chengelo back. However in the last moments of the first half they managed to score a try. We came into the 2nd half still fighting to win but the ball still wasn’t been passed around and Chengelo A managed to score one more try. We lost that game 10-0.
Overall the team did really well in the tournament as we managed to move up from our usual third place to second. In the two games that we did win Fungai and James won man of the match awards and during the award ceremony James won U19 Player of the Tournament! Despite the fact that we came out second I think we were one of the most decorated teams in terms of awards. I would just like to say that it has been a terrific rugby season and I have really seen the team grow in the way they play, interact and the way they represent the school and God.
Reported by: Ethan Milner
U16 Rugby 10's Tournament
The U16 boys also played in their first ever rugby event, another sign of Amano growing in size and stature. It was a team that was thrown together as players in the team train at different times because of the age group going over two pe groups. Also a number of people pulled out and so some other students were found at short notice to fill the empty slots. Not the best preperation but all very keen to play.
The U16 event was slightly different to the U19 in that they had 3 round robin games, no play offs. Our first game was against Chengelo A and the result was a loss of 17 - 0. A respectable loss as the boys were still figuring out their positions and getting used to the high speed and harder hits in competitive rugby. Our captain, Tarisai, came off after two minutes, unable to run, so Joshua Phiri took over a led the team by example, running hard at the opposition, finding gaps, chasing kicks and getting our team moving forward. Excellent play.
The second game was against Chengelo B and the result was an excellent win 17 - 5. Amano's Mwansa Mwansa ran in two tries, one of which Ilunga was able to convert and he also scored a try. These came about from good passing and running at the defence. Kurt was very active around the scrum and did some good carries. The real area of dominance was the break down where we were getting lots of turn overs from good tackling and quick support play.
The third game was against Simba who had a few players from the U19 team! Their tight head prop was enormous and certainly intimidating but the Amano boys showed little fear in having a go. Again, organisation was weak, as we sometimes over committed players to this one prop and as a result their first try came from a big overlap as four Amano students brought no. 3 down. Josh ran in a good try but we ended losing the game 10 - 5. This was a physical game but the boys showed they were up to it and played some excellent rugby.
Overall the success of the U16's came from good team work. Well done.
Report by Mr Grove
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