11 hours Ago
The Buckinghamshire school overcame Kingswood 20-15 in the U18 National Cup quarterfinals in a showcase that brought out the best of schoolboy rugby, with both teams determined to play ambitious, attacking rugby amidst difficult weather conditions. And after watching his side put his philosophy into practice by securing a place in the semi-finals, RGS head of rugby Honeyben could not contain his delight. “It was a really hard-fought game, the weather conditions were poor, which made everything heavy underfoot and it was a really good tactical battle between two sides still trying to play with ambition in difficult weather,” he said.
“It was a bit of back and forth in terms of scoreline and we had to grind out the second-half. Kingswood managed to take the lead early in the second half and we just tried to do the simple things really well and thankfully we ended up on the right side of the scoreline. “Their fly-half is an England U18 fly-half and ours [James Kucera] is one of our co-captains so that tactical battle was really at the forefront of everything in terms of the kicking game and managing the pitch and so on.
“Whenever you get to these rounds it’s always going to be a tight contest so sometimes it’s a bounce of the ball, a referee decision or an unforced error here or there but thankfully we stuck at it and showed a hell of a lot of resilience especially playing into the wind in the second half.” The RFU Continental Tyres Cup is foundational to age-grade rugby in England, enabling students from across the country to compete against one another and against the best the game has to offer at schoolboy level. Having overcome Kingswood School last time out, RGS' reward is a place in the National Cup semi-finals as one of the four best sides in the country and Honeyben said he can't wait for what comes next in a competition that has already provided RGS with so many memorable moments.
He added: “As a school it means a lot to get to a semi-final. We haven’t been there for a number of years so we’re just looking forward to the opportunity to see how we do in the next round. “It’s a fantastic opportunity.
You go to these competitions to get these moments and to play against these teams so our lads are really excited. There’s obviously a bit of time between now and the semi-final so hopefully the squad gets a good rest over Christmas but you play these games to get these opportunities and to get these moments. “Reaching the final would be fantastic.
It’d be an amazing day out for our players but as far as we’re concerned, it’s one game at a time and we’re just focusing our time and energy on the semi-final but we’re already really proud of the squad and what they’re achieving and what they’re doing.”.
