Bede suffer frost bite

Defending champions Bede snowballed out of Floodlit Cup in First Round

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Defending champions, Hild Bede, were knocked out in the first round of this year’s Floodlit Cup by little John Snow and their merry men on drop-kicks, after 100 minutes of rugby could not separate the teams.

Bede, one of the apparent two giants of college rugby, were beaten after a penalty shootout to one of the Queen’s Campus colleges. Snow, who had their first season in the Premier League last year, used their pure grit, determination and flair back line to cause the biggest shock in the competition for many years.

The first ten minutes saw John Snow take control as Bede could not get their hands on the ball. This long period of pressure resulted in the first points of the game being scored, 3-0 John Snow. After this Bede found their normal selves and the standard of their rugby drastically improved. After reports of their forwards being weak the previous week, they were strengthened by several University players and their scrum became a huge weapon. They dominated the set piece and looked too much for Snow.

Bede’s powerful scrum caused Snow many problems

Bede took their dominance to the Snow 22 where they stayed for the next ten minutes, until a ripped ball saw the John Snow 13, Harrison Hancock, break away with the ball and run it in under the posts for the first try of the game.

Bede responded by using their strong pack to their advantage and scores began to flow from both sides. Yet again college rugby was plagued by yellow cards as John Snow had two and Bede one. Despite this, Snow were leading 15-10 when the last play was called. However, the Manchester United of College Rugby utilized their experience and scored in the corner to make it 15 all. Bede’s kicker who hadn’t had the best game, yet again lacked the ability to convert. Let’s hope for him that he’s not this bad with the ladies. The 80 minutes finished tied at 15-15 extra time was looming.

Extra time was scrappy and unsurprisingly lacked energy but still provided entertainment to the predominantly Snow crowd. Either side quickly traded penalties with the score at 3-3. However, with five minutes to go, Bede were camped on the Snow 5m line but were unable to convert this into points despite Snow being down to 14 men.

This left it to the Penalty shootout, which meant five players of each side had to take a drop goal from the 22m line in front of the posts.

Snow converted their first with ease as it was ploughed down the middle by fly half Chris Morgan. Bede’s kicker maintained his poor kicking form and missed narrowly past the right hand post. Next for John Snow was man of the match Lewis Kuhler, who’s attempt was on par with that of a one legged pirate as it scarcely missed the touchline flag. Yet again Bede missed by a small distance to the right hand post. The all round kicking quality was poor, as a run of misses continued until John Snow’s David Jones put his kick through the posts to put the pressure on Bede. However, the Bede player continued the trend and the shoot out ended 2-0 to John Snow.

Cue wild scenes similar to winning the World Cup.

Snow’s success was amplified over the weekend. A rowdy social from Cuth’s led to them being banned from their weekend’s fixtures, resulting in a 40-0 walkover for Snow. This subsequently saw John Snow defeat both of the two college rugby giants in a weekend.

Durham Tab Awards

Man of the Match: Lewis Khuler. Despite almost kicking his drop goal backwards, it was a phenomenal performance from this Khul Kid.

Dick of the Day: Moni Alli for complaining to the ref for a shove, consequently being told he’s not playing football

Moment of the Match: Bede kicker missing their third kick, sending the big Snow crowd and players into jubilation.

Snowdrop: Successful drop goal by Chris Morgan gave Snow 1-0 lead in the shoot out