Northgate is well known for having sporting success in a number of different sports across the year groups. The Year 9 got the new season off to a winning start for Northgate rugby. They competed in the Norfolk Emerging Schools Festival. Barney commented, ‘well done to all the Northgate Year 9 Rugby team for an outstanding performance at the 10’s tournament in Norwich. Our team beat Aylsham High School, Notre Dame High School and many others including City of Norwich School who we beat in the finals 4-2. All players gave their all, but I will give a special shout out to Tyler. It was his debut for the team and he scored for us against Framingham Earl. Overall, we scored 29 tries and conceded only 7 in six games! This was because of our monstrous rucking (from Aston, Frank, TJ and Josh) and our pace (Alex, Andre and Callum). However, everyone contributed greatly. Well done Northgate, let’s carry on our winning streak!
Mr Llewellyn gave this report of the competition:
‘The Year 9s faced a tricky home game against a talented team from Hellesdon, despite them only turning up with 11 players. To make it an even contest, Northgate matched the numbers meaning a fair contest could be had. The smaller numbers and slightly smaller pitch caused Northgate a few organisational problems leading to an early score from Hellesdon. The visitor’s strong tackling and running caught the boys cold and consequently spent the whole of the first period in their own half.
A few honest words at half term had the desired effect with Northgate scoring straight away from a powerful run by Josh. A better attitude towards the tackle from everyone and a more aggressive approach to the ruck meant that Northgate began to gain some advantage over their visitors. This was put into good practice Josh again powered over for two further tries giving Northgate a narrow home win after a late score form Hellesdon. It is often said that a sign of a good team is one that still wins despite a below par performance. This was certainly the case for this Year 9 team. Overall the fluent, attacking rugby was a joy to watch.’
