Kesser Torah College beats The King’s School…at rugby!
The Chant “Who Are We? KTC!” rises above all other sounds as Sydney’s KTC Under 13’s Rugby Team prepare to run out against their opposition The King’s School.
Dean Cohen reports:
For those who are unaware, The King’s School is one of the most prestigious and well-respected rugby schools in Australia fielding over 32 teams every year. The nervous energy, anticipation and excitement builds as the referee blows the whistle to start the game. The Kesser Torah College team has been training since the beginning of Term 2. This has involved training early mornings before the sun had risen and putting extra hours after school. This display of commitment and dedication is all put on the line as the KTC team begin their first game with a deep kick off.
The King’s School team receives the ball and instantly they are overwhelmed by the wall that is the KTC Rugby team. To everyone’s surprise the KTC boys took the game head on with no fear or concern. For every player on the team this is the first time they have ever put on a Rugby jersey and played the game. However for the spectators and coaches the way the team played no-one would have known about their lack of match experience. The KTC team tackled with strength and purpose to knock the opposition team backwards and ran the ball each time breaking numerous tackles to put the blue team in attacking positions.
After 5 minutes the KTC boys were 10 metres from the line, going through their sixth consecutive phase. The roll on continued with Daniel Fisher picking up the ball from the ruck and diving over the tryline to score KTC’s first try and put the team up by 5 points.
Within the next attacking period KTC were able to spin the ball out to the backs to eventually be in the hands of Naftali Ray who used his blistering pace and agility to break through tackles and run 35 metres to score KTC’s second try.
Going into the second half KTC were ahead 10 to nil however the threat coming from fresh The King’s School substitutions and their superior experience in winning games in the second half, the boys readied themselves for a physically brutal start to the second half. The second half started similar to the first with Kesser Torah in great field positions to score however the team was not able to convert the advantageous situations into points. Against the run of play The King’s School collected a loose ball and were able to counterattack and score a try. Soon after The King’s School scored again, however this time right in between the goal posts, which allowed them to convert the try. With Kings leading 12-10 the KTC team had to dig deep and overcome this huge obstacle of experience that was their opposition. In comes Yehoshua Shellim. His agility and heart both insurmountable came to the rescue with accurate and effective legs tackles and courageous open field running. The KTC team were back in the game and a passage of play that had the boys making numerous passes to travel 60 metres up field. The ball was passed to the fullback Eli Teichtahl who carried defenders over with him to score the vital try putting Kesser Torah back in front with 5 minutes remaining.
The next few minutes were the most intense of the match with both teams not giving an inch. Kobi Berkovits, the team captain inspired the team with strong ball carries, Levi Niasoff displayed his prowess in defence, Davi Charak was ruthless in clearing out the ball and Jonah Roberts was instrumental in supporting his forwards. There were opportunities for each team to close out the match however the defence from the forwards nullified the opponent. All of a sudden Yehoshua Shellim has the ball in his grasp and he steps numerous Kings defenders and breaks the tackle to run 30 metres and score the most pivotal try of the match and seal the victory for Kesser Torah College.
This victory was a momentous occasion for Kesser Torah College not only because of the final result but also on how much this means for these boys to be apart of a Rugby team. The courage these boys showed to walk on to the Rugby field against one of the most prestigious Rugby schools in Australia was inspiring. Each person has his or her own obstacles to overcome whether it be learning something new or going outside their comfort zone. These boys not only overcame these obstacles but mastered their fears as a unified Rugby team. Mazel Tov to the under 13’s KTC Rugby Team!
Kesser Torah College won the match 20-12.
As captain of the team I want to wish a huge to Mazal tov to all the players. We all put in a tremendous effort and our hard work and training has payed off thanks to mr Cohen who has prepared us for the game and devoted his time to us as a team. We will hopefully be playing more next season and our training and team spirit will continue. Thank you