Review of 2007 - 2008 Season

By early June we had signed up 6 former Rishworth School boys and the momentum had begun with a further 5 players joining before training had started. All we needed was a player coach, we heard Jamie Bloem was available and following a meeting on June 25th Jamie agreed to become the Old Rishworthians player coach. Jamie was introduced to members at the AGM and John Clough was asked to join the coaching team. Gary Morris was appointed as 1st team captain for the second season, Chris Mitchell was captain of the 2nd team and so the foundations for the season were in place.

Two pre season wins against Bolton and a Heath XV put the team in a good frame of mind for the opening EDF Junior Vase Cup fixture away to Burley. The game almost went according to plan as the Copley men were leading 16-3 but Burley then scored 17 points down the hill and the defeat meant that a trip to Twickenham would not feature in our plans this season. However spirits were high when we visited Stanley Rodillians for our first league game which they won 39-12. Further matches in September saw the team score 181 points and concede only 3. Defence was one of our major strengths especially in midfield, with Fraser Davidson, Andrew Morgan, Morris and Bloem excelling.

October fixtures included a tricky match at Rotherham Phoenix, who were defeated 13-0, a preliminary round match in The Silver Trophy at Wibsey which we struggled to win 17-12 and victories over Old Grovians and Adwick le Street. November saw Stanley Rodillians visit Copley and trounced 87-0. However a Silver Trophy 1st round match at Stanley Rodillians saw a surprise defeat 24-28. The team showed 6 changes and did well considering that two players were injured during the game. Back to the league and victories over Marist and Rossington Hornets saw the team end the year unbeaten scoring 501 points and conceding 21. The team was top of the league and intended to stay there.

January 2008 will be remembered in Copley for the torrential rain and the effect it had on the Old Rishworthian`s pitches. Two victories over Old Grovians and Adwick Le Street was followed by flooding on Monday January 21st.The game against Mosborough, on January 26th was postponed. February 2nd was an important day. The Old Rishworthians, who were top of the league, played their main rivals Rotherham Phoenix. Whilst snow had fallen overnight, a local referee confirmed that the game could go ahead. Rotherham Phoenix was confident of an upset although the Copley men had other ideas and the Phoenix did not rise from its ashes! The following Saturday saw our local rivals Halifax Vandals visit Copley for the first game in Yorkshire 5C. Old Rishworthians did not disappoint the large crowd at this derby game. A wonderful controlled kicking game by Jamie Bloem and a superb defensive display by the team ensured that the home side received all spoils and the victory 17-10 was celebrated long into the night.

Winning all games was becoming the main focus. The next three games saw the team score 116 points and concede 3. During the game against Pontefract Pythons Jamie Bloem beat the club point's record of 282. The game against Sheffield Medicals had a significant effect. If the Copley men could defeat the Medics and Halifax Vandals defeated Rotherham Phoenix then the Champions title would go to the Old Rishworthians. That is exactly what happened.

Club records were starting to be broken and against Sheffield Oaks, the team scored a further 31 points and exceeded the club points record of 1004. The final game against Wetherby appeared to be straight forward, but the team struggled to win 12-3 confirming that they had won all their league games and had the best defensive record of any club in England!

The most encouraging feature of the season was in the Sheffield Oaks league match where 7 players were 20 years of age or under: - Hedley Stirk, Gerard Rawlings, Wesley Aldridge, Nick Faulkner, Lee Atkinson, Jack Butcher and Joe Billing. This is exactly why the club decided to set up a Mini and Junior section and the hard work is slowly starting to pay off.

Click here for the match reports      Click here for the player statistics

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Results 2007 - 2008 Season

Date	Competition	Opponents	Venue	Result	Man of Match
August 11th	Pre Season	Bolton XV	Away	W 54 - 7	Fraser Davidson
August 18th	Pre Season	Heath XV	Home	W 26 - 5	Jioti Bakoso
September 1st	EDF Vase 1st Round	Burley	Away	L 16 - 20
September 8th	League	Rodillians	Away	W 39 - 12	Chris Fox
September 15th	League	Wibsey	Home	W 72 - 0	Nick Faulkner
September 22nd	League	Marist	Away	W 31 - 0	Dave Morley
September 29th	League	Rossington Hornets	Home	W 78 - 3	Max Prashad
October 6th	League	Rotherham Phoenix	Away	W 13 - 0	Max Prashad/James Clarke
October 13th	Silver Trophy	Wibsey	Away	W 17 - 12	Jioti Bakoso
October 20th	League	Old Grovians	Away	W 24 - 3	Chris Fox/Ken Ranton
October 27th	League	Adwick Le Street	Home	W 71 - 0	Joe Billing
November 3rd	League	Rodillians	Home	W 87 - 0	Andrew Morgan
November 10th	League	Wibsey	Away	W 40 - 3	Andrew Bull
November 17th	Silver Trophy	Rodillians	Away	L 24 - 28	.
November 24th	League	Marist	Home	W 14 - 3	.
December 1st	League	Rossington Hornets	Away	W 62 - 0	Chris Fox & James Clarke
December 8th	Friendly	Eccles	Home	Postponed	.
December 15th	League	Rotherham Phoenix	Home	Postponed	.
December 22nd	Friendly	Halifax Vandals	Away	Cancelled	.
December 29th	Friendly	Heath 2nd XV	Away	L 3 - 13	.
January 5th	League	Old Grovians	Home	W 38 - 8	.
January 12th	Friendly	No game			.
January 19th	League	Adwick Le Street	Away	W 24 - 0	Dave Morley
January 26th	League	Mosborough	Home	Postponed	.
February 2nd	League	Rotherham Phoenix	Home	W 13 - 3	Chris Fox
February 9th	League	Halifax Vandals	Home	W 17 - 10	Chris Fox
February 16th	League	Pontefract Pythons	Away	W 67 - 0	Chris Flanagan
February 23rd	League	Mosborough	Home	W 24 - 3?	Jioti Bakoso
March 1st	League	Harrogate Pythons	Home	W 25 - 0	Andrew Bull
March 8th	League	Sheffield Medicals	Away	W 19 - 8	Chris Fox & James Clarke
March 15th	Friendly?	Colne & Nelson	Away	L 3 - 27	.
March 22nd	Friendly?	Burley	Home	W 29 - 0	Hedley Stirk
March 29th	League	Ossett	Home	W 23 - 0	.
April 5th	Friendly?	Huddersfield YM 2nd XV	Home	W 43 - 6	.
April 12th	League	Sheffield Oaks	Away	W 31 - 12	.
April 19th	League	Wetherby	Away	W 12 - 3	.

Yorks 5B	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts	Adj
Old Rishworthians	22	22	0	0	824	71	753	44	0
Rotherham Phoenix	22	17	0	5	710	167	543	34	0
Marist	22	9	1	12	365	301	64	19	0
Old Grovians	22	9	1	12	363	428	-65	19	0
Adwick le Street	22	6	2	14	139	511	-372	14	0
Stanley Rodillians	22	7	1	14	270	575	-305	13	-2
Wibsey	22	3	1	18	188	568	-380	5	-2
Rossington Hornets	22	4	1	17	166	696	-530	5	-4

Yorks 5C	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts	Adj
Old Rishworthians	8	8	0	0	218	36	182	16	0
Halifax Vandals	8	7	0	1	251	69	182	14	0
Ossett	8	6	1	1	174	68	106	13	0
Rotherham Phoenix	8	6	0	2	268	64	204	12	0
Sheffield Medicals	8	6	0	2	201	111	90	12	0
Mosborough	8	5	0	3	175	101	74	10	0
Harrogate Pythons	8	5	0	3	165	98	67	10	0
Pontefract Pythons	8	5	0	3	119	159	-40	10	0
Old Grovians	8	4	0	4	111	169	-58	8	0
Sheffield Oaks	8	3	0	5	103	159	-56	6	0
Marist	8	2	0	6	115	126	-11	4	0
Wetherby	8	2	0	6	57	188	-131	4	0
Rossington Hornets	8	2	0	6	87	234	-147	4	0
Adwick le Street	8	1	1	6	41	161	-120	3	0
Wibsey	8	1	0	7	58	196	-138	2	0
Stanley Rodillians	8	0	0	8	55	259	-204	0	0