PCubed Challenge a Roaring Success

Friday saw 6 of London Skolars Community partner Primary Schools make the journey into the heart of the City to compete for the much coveted PCubed Challenge. This year saw the 6 highest performing schools from the London Skolars Community programme in the Haringey and surrounding boroughs drawn into 2 groups of 3, with the winners going on to play each other in the final.
Group One saw the 2 early favourites drawn together. Coldfall, the reigning champions faced Rhodes Avenue, who were recently crowned Haringey Tag Rugby Champions. Alongside these were tournament newcomers Coleridge who were appearing after impressing Community Staff in the Haringey Regional Festival back in November. However their task was always going to be a difficult one and they came undo in both their games, losing heavily 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. However they showed some real desire and in their captain and playmaker Alfie Elvis they had an inspirational leader who gave it 100% effort. It came down to the final game of the group to decide who was going through in 1st place – Rhodes Avenue started the brighter of the 2 sides and raced into an early lead. Coldfall then hit back and clawed 2 tries back to really put pressure on Rhodes Avenue as the game entered into it’s final few minutes. However despite Coldfall really pushing, Rhodes Avenue survived the game and finished top of Group One to reach the final for the first time.
Group Two was a far more open group, with local prep school Keble drawn against St Michaels from Highgate and local Tottenham primary St Pauls and Hallow. St Michaels set the early pace with a commanding 3-0 victory against new comers St Pauls and Hallow. However in their second game St Paul’s began to get more comfortable with the pace of the game and held Keble to a 1-1 draw. The final game of the group was again a crucial one as Keble faced St Michaels. Despite having the majority of possession, and being by far the more comfortable side with the rugby ball, St Michaels defence was pretty impenetrable and Keble were held to a 1-1 draw for the second time of the day, meaning St Michaels finished top of the group with 4 points.
For the first year ever, all teams had an extra game, with 3rd place in each Group playing each other and 2nd place playing their counterparts from the opposing group. St Pauls came out on top and showed how much they had improved from their first game beating Coleridge by 4 tries to 1. Keble enjoyed their best win of the tournament, beating Coldfall 2-0.
As the large crowd began to gather for the main game between London Skolars and Wigan Warriors, Rhodes Avenue and St Michaels played out the best final seen in all years of the PCubed tournament. As had been the case all day – St Michaels ability to tag was absolutely incredible and their defence once again thwarted Rhodes Avenue again and again. With neither team able to breach each other’s defence the final went to Golden Point extra time for the first occasion in the events history. Both teams began to tire and errors crept into their game, it was from one of these errors that Rhodes Avenue star player Louie Hubbard dived onto a loose ball and set off on what should have been a match winning run. However St Michaels had other ideas and their blonde flyer Lily Hesper Dugdale produced a fantastic diving tag to save the game for St Michaels. This proved to be the last play of the game and as the final whistle was blown, both sides shared the spoils and were crowned joint winners of the PCubed Challenge for 2015.
The winning teams were presented with their medals by guest of honour Andy Farrell and Richard Siddle from tournament sponsors PCubed.