By Thomas Latu
Coming off the back of a great first round 1 win against Parramatta , the 2nd Colts were out to back up this performance against a strong physical Penrith side. Leading into the match, aggression was the key. A few changes in the starting line-up saw experienced fly-half Edward Renton come into the mix, Angus Allen covered the outside centre role (scoring two impressive tries) and Ollie Young stepped up into the scrum-half role.
During the first half, we missed several easy opportunities to score, silly errors and poor execution were our downfall when it counted the most, especially at the restart. This is something that we need to work on. Despite a shaky start, the Uni forwards dominated the scrum throughout the game, their impressive teamwork was rewarded when they scored the first points of the match through a pushover try, controlled excellently at the back by Oliver Harvison.
The Uni boys went on to score another 4 tries in the first half, two of which came from Full-back, Max Robson. It was going to be hard for Penrith to bounce back.
The second half saw a much improved team, showing a much more structured approach to the game. The Students dominance continued and the first try after the break was scored by Captain, Charlie Hancock from a monster run, breaking though the Penrith defence. This kept the 2nd Colts confidence high as they retained the ball from the kick off. The group worked hard to execute the game plan structures we had in place, the half pairing of Young and Renton really ran the show and controlled the game well.
The Students went on to score another 5 tries in the second half, the majority coming from multiple phases and passing the ball through many sets of hands. The defensive effort from the group was impressive to see, keeping the Emus scoreless has giving the team a huge confidence boost.
Overall, we were happy with a performance scoring a total of 11 tries. There is still work to do and we will continue to improve for this weekends match. Final score 67-0.
Up the Students!