Sydney University
Vs
Randwick
5 July 2025
By Bruce China Lin
Sydney University suffered a defeat last Saturday at that graveyard along the coast Coogee Oval. Randwick piled on the points as nothing went right for University in their 40-17 loss.
An early penalty and penalty try sin binning for a collapsed maul delivered University an early lead of 10-0. Then the majority of the game for the Students was as exciting to watching Sir Walter buffalo turf grow.
The early Randwick sin binning was matched with consecutive sin binnings experienced by the Students. Randwick reaped immeasurable opportunities with a two man advantage. The number of penalties given by the referee warranted this scribe to produce his family heirloom abacus from his backpack to keep a running tally of those given!
University were their own worst enemies giving away some might call 50/50 penalties There was no sense of*ignoscency from the referee Mr McCarthy as University kept on receiving penalties and Randwick scoring off their traditional ad lib opportunist play.
The second half was a procession of stop starts where continuity was hard to discover. Only in the last three minutes did University show a reflection of what they can do.
From a scrum the ball was passed to the beach side. Then it was received by the of player with the name straight out of an Irish soul band Ronan Leahy returning from the wild west of Western Australia. Leahy with his blinding pace skirted around a defender and powered downfield drawing the last line of defence. Leahy passed to his support the machine Benjy Joseland who was even quicker. Joseland motored down the touchline and scored the try which was later converted.
The game soon after ended in a resounding Randwick victory. Not the prettiest of days for University and best be forgotten as the mistakes and discipline requires addressing.
Next week University are back home. We play Northern Suburbs in likely another solid game.
* Ignoscency – forgiveness or have a forgiving nature.