Aylward Academy’s dominance of the Carnegie Champion School’s regional qualifiers continued this week, with their Year 9 team making it through by 32-20 at the expense of Christ’s College, Finchley in an exciting North London final at New River Stadium.

The year 9 team arrived brimming with confidence as they sought to join their Year 7 and Year 8 counterparts in the next round of the Champion Schools. Standing between them and the next stage of the competition were an enthusiastic team from Christ’s College, Finchley.

Aylward started the brighter of the two sides, with a superb kick off that bounced into touch and regained them possession.  Continuous line breaks from loose forward and captain Daniel Grant ensured they crossed for 2 quick fire tries. The big forwards in the Aylward pack were causing Christ’s College some real problems in defence and this coupled with the pace and footwork they possessed in their outside backs enabled them to race into a commanding 20-8 halftime lead.

Even though the Finchley boys managed to cross for 2 unconverted tries towards the end of the first half, they were glad to hear the halftime whistle. After some half time wisdom from teacher, Mr Fleming, they started the second half with far more vigour and began to play a much more patterned game, with their bigger forwards coming to the fore and really taking the attack to Aylward. Their hard work was rewarded as they began to whittle away at the 12 point deficit and scored some outstanding tries out wide, mainly due to the hard work of their forwards in the middle.

However, a few errors in attack and lapses in concentration allowed Aylward to sneak in for a few tries against the run of play and as much as Christ’s College tried they just couldn’t get near enough to their opponents to snatch a win.

There was delight at the final whistle for Aylward as they joined their younger school members in the next round of the Champion Schools competition.

Skolars Community Coach Matt Cuss said “Today was another great advert for the development of school rugby in the area, Christ’s College never gave up and were rewarded with some outstanding tries, whilst Aylward again showed the progress they are making and what can be done when a school buys into rugby league across all age-groups.”