The 2s Colties kicked off the season with a win, 66-12 against a large Parramatta outfit.
In the first half, points were left on the field as we let down the opportunities created through strong phase play with poor execution when it counted most. These poor passes and dropped balls, however, allowed the forwards to test their scrum against a much larger forward pack. After a shaky start, the Uni front row got under their Two Blues counterparts and controlled the set piece for the rest of the game. Particularly impressive was a pushover try late in the first half, controlled excellently at the back by Milan Basson.
Cutting out our unforced errors almost entirely in the second half, the 2s played a much-improved 35 mins of football. We listened to the coaches’ advice to stop forcing passes and throwing weak offloads, allowing us to retain possession and build pressure through phase play. The first try of the second half, scored by Peni Tuituipou, was a brilliant team try that made use of our preseason training; we retained the ball off of the kick off and then worked into and executed our structure, freeing up a channel out wide which was exploited by Tom Woodcock and Max Sinclair.
The second half continued in this fashion as we scored another 6 tries, a majority of them through multiple phases and passing through many sets of hands.
Overall, we are happy to have scored 10 tries in our first hit out but are aware also that we conceded 2. Our defensive intensity and execution is our biggest work-on moving forward.