WESTBOURNE House might have won both the netball and the rugby tournaments in St Michael’s annual festival of sport yesterday, but to do so they had to beat two Jersey teams in the finals.

Not only was the standard of play extremely high but I’ve never known so many close games before,’ said Angela de Figueiredo, organiser of the netball tournament and head of girls PE at St Michael’s, after Westbourne had beaten Le Rocquier 9-8 in a final which could easily have gone either way.

‘The semi-finals were also close (Le Rocquier beat Durlston Court 5-4 while Westbourne House beat JCG 6-4). And that’s the first time since I’ve been involved with the tournament that the Travtel Trophy has gone to the mainland,’ she added.

Compared to the netball tournament, which had 21 teams, the final of the rugby sevens was more one-sided, with St Michael’s losing 36-0 to Westbourne.

Admiration

However, following tries from Tad Mather, Sam Jeffries (2), Joel Clarke (2) and Ollie Ayton, with three conversions by Alex Walker, coach Barry Pretorius was full of admiration for the tournament, and St Michael’s.

‘They’ve played excellent team rugby to get here,’ he said. ‘And I know just how young some of their players are.’

In fact, five of the St Michael’s squad are in year 7 in the under-13 tournament, which makes them eligible to play again next year.

”I was pleased for the lads to get to the final,’ said coach Len McAviney afterwards. ‘And while I was also pleased with the way the team played – as a team – perhaps George Fagan and George Baron, plus Edward Fricker, who was excellent as our kicker, deserve special mention. But I’m not that disappointed because with such a small intake of students to choose from, this was a great result for us.’

St Michael’s head of PE, Stuart Wheeldon, also picked up on the home side’s capacity to play organised rugby against players who were physically bigger than they were.

‘The spirit of the side was excellent,’ he said. ‘But then the whole competition saw some terrific games, helped by a large number of supporters cheering from the sidelines.

‘I was also delighted that the quarter-finals saw four Island schools involved, and the game between Vic College and De La Salle was superb (College won 35-21). Les Quennevais also played some excellent rugby to get to their quarter-finals.’

In all 12 teams took part and the semi-finals saw Westbourne beat Durlston Court 33-14 while St Michael’s beat Victoria College 33-14.