Wellington College rounded their season off in style with an excellent 33-7 victory over the Australian touring school, King’s Parramatta.
King’s already had a couple of notable scalps from their tour already, including Sir Thomas Rich’s, so from the outset is was clear that Wellington faced a tough challenge if they were to finish their season on the high that they wanted to.
Coming off the back of successive victories over Cranleigh, St Paul’s, and Tonbridge though, Wellington knew that they were in form, however King’s put up a strong fight to leave the half time score line at just 7-0.
If anything, despite the try King’s seemed to be marginally in the ascendency in a game that was dominated by big clashes in the middle of the park, perpetuated by some fantastically accurate kicking from both sides, with the King’s full back showed a particularly acute sense of positioning and excellent kicking ability.
The second half began much like the first, with some superb tactical kicking dominating the opening exchanges but it was soon to go wrong for the home side as Parramatta secured a penalty from one kick return. Sending the ball to the corner the tourists sets up a brilliant platform from the lineout to send their hard running inside centre crashing over.
Their brilliant full back converted and if the game was ever going to slip from Wellington’s control it would have been at this point, however what was always up Wellington’s sleeve though was the superbly vocal and passionate support of a packed out Bigside crowd.
With bagpipes, drums, and hundreds of voices, that support seemed to galvanise the home side as Wellington almost immediately responded by storming into the away half.
It was seriously heavy duty carrying, with both forwards and backs alike prepared to do the hard work of carrying in tight to the fringes. With momentum on the pitch building and the support on the touchlines growing ever louder the inevitable soon happened as Hamish Richardson went crashing over to give his side the lead.
Number 8 Will Wilson banged over the extras to stretch the lead out to 14-7 and suddenly, having been in a tight game, Wellington were now truly in the ascendency.
Parramatta were still playing their part in this wonderful occasion though, with their excellent blindside doing a fine impression of Dan Lydiate with his chop tackling, however Wellington were insatiable, with one barnstorming break from England Under 18s Prop Seb Adeniran-Olule sparking particular raucousness in the crowd.
Such momentum is hard to resist and soon Wellington were at it again after a strong central scrum on the edge of the Parramatta 22 allowed the home side to run a brilliant backs move, which saw one of their substitute centres almost stroll over, such was the gap created for him. Again Wilson added the extras, giving the men in black and gold a 21-7 lead.
Parramatta were not dead and buried yet and still showed flashes of their undoubted ability, however as the game moved into the final few minutes Wellington accelerated away in a manner that only the very best school sides in any country are able to do.
As our video of the closing stages of play shows, it was a period of simply unstoppable momentum and skill from the home side. First they took a scrum against the head deep inside the away 22 and quick handling from Will Wilson at the base saw King accelerate away into the left hand corner to score from scrum half.
Wilson missed the conversion but it was he who claimed the restart and began the build up to what has to be one of the better tries of the season. From deep inside their own half Wellington worked their way into the Parramatta 22.
There were no huge breaks, just very solid carrying and a couple of accelerations out wide but it was all just outstandingly composed rugby. As they drove towards the line the dream score was thwarted by a Parramatta infringement, however it mattered not as Wellington went to the corner, from where they set up a superb lineout and rolling maul to send Cook smashing over the try line, much to the delight of his teammates, coaches, and the great mass of supporters.
Wilson added the conversion to seal a 33-7 victory for Wellington, their twelfth in fifteen games this season, a stat that shows just how exceptional this team is.
The next big challenge for this excellent rugby school comes after the Christmas break as they commence their Sevens season and build towards what they hope will be a fourth National Schools Sevens title in a row at Rosslyn Park in March, and a fifth in six years, a feat that few would bet too much against.
Full Time: Wellington College 33-7 King’s School Parramatta
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