Bishop club rugby team wins state championship with a perfect season

Mission accomplished.

The Bishop England rugby team topped Lexington 12-10 Saturday at Irmo High School to win the first Division II state championship.

The sport is not sanctioned by the South Carolina League and is a club sport. Still there was plenty to celebrate as the Bishops posted a 10-0 record and claimed the state title in the South Carolina High School Rugby League.

“This was a complete team victory,” Bishop England coach Keith Bayer said. “We only used one substitution all day, which means 14 of our boys went all 60 minutes. Lexington had a lot of opportunities because of their aggressiveness at the breakdowns, but our boys thwarted each attack with great tackling and heads up defense.”

The Bishops took an early lead when captain Joseph Thatcher passed to inside center Callum Scott. Scott split the defense and beat the lone defender in the backfield to score the try. The conversion made it 7-0.

The rest of the first half was a struggle. Lexington making a penalty kick before the half to make the score 7-3 at the break.

The second half saw the match pick up in intensity. After 10 minutes of play the Bishops back line, broke off a series of long runs by Scott and Carter Kilgore to get inside the Lexington 5. From there, scrum half Ian Butler made a brilliant move to evade a defender, turned his body and got the ball over the goal for their second try of the day.

But, Lexington was quick to put the pressure back on the Bishops. On the ensuing kickoff the Bishops misplayed the ball and Lexington was able to take possession deep inside Bishops’ territory. The Bishops withstood several attacks at the goal line but eventually Lexington was able to score a try of their own. After making the conversion kick, the score was at 12-10 with 12 minutes left to play.

But the Bishops took control of the match, attacking Lexington and keeping the ball inside their 22 line for the rest of the match.

Bishop England went 2-6 in its first year of competition in 2014 and 3-5 last year. Saturday’s encounter sealed the Bishops’ perfect season.

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

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