2nd Grade (Colin Caird Shield)
By Ray Hudd (Coach)
West Harbour turned up to play as we went into the half-time break at 5 points all.
The arm wrestle continued into the second half with both teams locked at 19 points all after 20 mins.
Uni started to edge in front off the back of some strong efforts by Nick Champion de Crespigny, Nick Coaldrake, Jackson McCalman and Declan Moore which enabled Connor O’Shea, Ben Hughes and Harry Potter to find space.
With the final seconds counting down and the score at 47 to 19 West Harbour managed to score a final try on the bell.
Man of the Match – Harry Potter
Sydney Uni 47 def. West Harbour 24
3rd Grade (Henderson Shield)
Sydney Uni 66 def. West Harbour 5
4th Grade (Henderson Cup)
By Ben Carolan (Player)
The consistent form of the mighty 4s was on display early at SUFG (No.2 Oval). Coach Davies and Dansey emphasised the importance of field position and connection in defence to ensure a good start against an unpredictable and physical West Harbour side.
The calm, cool and collected John Paea responded immediately, ensuring the first 20 minute period was played well and truly in Wests half, allowing the Students to dominate possession and field position. However a lack of patience with the ball and not securing the breakdown lead to a few uncharacteristic early errors. Finally, after a period of sustained pressure and a well-executed maul from the forwards, Pat O’Doherty got the first 5-pointer on the board.
Regrouping at half way, it was evident that direct running and holding the ball for longer periods was needed. Step up Saia Tanginoa, with no ounce of lateral movement in his carries, along with George Lehmann, Aidan Brown and Vincent Robinson the go forward that was lacking in the first exchange was now in place. This allowed the skills of the Students to be put on show, displaying a master class in the simply aspects of the game; direct running and quick hands. The Students ran in a number of tries, with a special mention to a solo effort from Mesake Tagituimua in his newly found position in the halves. The most pleasing aspect of the game was the defence shown by the Students, to hold Wests to 0, with the score finishing 31-0. Coach Davies and Coach Dansey praised the efforts of the boys, but emphasised the need to respect the ball more, particularly coming into the pointy end of the season.
Best and Fairest points:
Mesake Tagituimua (3 points)
Ben Carolan (2 points)
John Pea (1 point)
Sydney Uni 31 def. West Harbour 0
1st Colts (W.McMahon Memorial Shield)
By Rob Taylor (Coach)
We were reasonable happy with the way we started round 2, maybe not with three tries being scored against us.
Positives were; we played our fastest 40 minutes of rugby since I’ve been at the Club, we played at 90 metres per minute for the first-half and finished the game at an average of 84 metres per minute. It certainly blew out some cobwebs, there were some deep oxygen intake going on at half-time.
The pressure the 2nd and 3rd Colts players are putting on 1st Colts, both of those teams have played some exhilarating rugby this year. Congratulations to the debutants for 1st Colts; William Terry, Hayden Pomare and Josh Hardie. There is some real pressure for positions with the good form of 2nd and 3rd Colts.
Points for this week go to:
3 – Miti Tuinakauvadra. He easily had his game of the year, making 6 dominant carries, 1 try, 2 line-breaks, 5 tackle busts in attack, hit 16 rucks and made 8 tackles. He also recorded 20 collisions on his GPS unit, which is one of the highest by a forward I’ve seen in Colts. It means that every time Miti either carried the ball or tackled he was using a high level of force to go forward in contact or hopefully through.
2 – Banjo Travers had some key moments where he was influencing the game with his hustle, support lines and quick thinking in attack and defence. He had two try assists, one from a perfect attacking kick over the short side defence for Starth Yeo to latch on to.
1 – Starth Yeo picks up one point. He had a very good all round game in attack with 7 dominant carries, 2 tries, 3 try assists, 2 line-breaks and also 2 off-loads.
Other notable performances were Ed King with 4 tries and Tim Clements finding space in broken play. In the forwards, Josh Sheridan picking up 2 tries by running excellent support lines and two very good steals, a solid performance by an opensider. Ratu Rotasolia and Josh Kemeny won a few opposition lineouts and threw their bodies around in contact.
Sydney Uni 69 def. West Harbour 19
2nd Colts (Shell Trophy)
By Connor Farnell (Player)
After the bye round 2nd Colts were looking to continue building their momentum towards finals footy.
The Students opened up the West Harbour defence early out wide and were able to capitalise by scoring a few quick tries from some slick work in the backs led by Josh Hardie. The set-piece also proved to be a weapon in the first-half for the forwards with two tries being scored from the back of the maul. West Harbour didn’t give up and showed some ticker to cross the line themselves and put on some good hits.
The Students started to flow even more in the second half as the team exploited their running game which saw a number of boys crossing the line for a meat pie. 2nd Colts were able to maintain their defence to keep West Harbour with only one try. Full credit to the boys as always for a big 51-5 victory.
Sydney Uni 51 def. West Harbour 5
3rd Colts (Bill Simpson Shield)
By Gabriel Enright (Coach)
Traditionally the end of June is a tough time of year being crammed with Uni Exams, Assignments and Schoolboy Trials that can disrupt and distract the younger players in the Colts group. Last year 3rd Colts dropped a few games and ground out a draw against Easts to topple down the leaderboard in the same period before righting the ship as it sailed magnificently into the business end of the year.
This year round, Head Coach Robert Taylor masterfully tweaked the training program – short, sharp then back to the books after some tucker – while team coaches motivated the players to keep the energy and attendance up. This proved a boon with 3rd Colts running out winners by 63 points to zip aganist West Harbour on Super Saturday to maintain an 11 game winning streak and to go Top of the Table once again. SUFC Colts achieved their 8th clean sweep in a row in the process.
“Get it to the paint” was the mantra and it was winger Toby Dickinson that enjoyed the spoils running in 4 tries for the day – 3 points again obviously. By continually getting quick, quality ball to the edges the left flank of 3rd Colts is looking deadly as they hone their skills for using it. Luke Porter continues to improve in both defense and attack, getting his big frame behind every tackle, clean out and hit up – it won’t be long before his “metres after contact” start paying dividends for the sizzle in the backs. Colts Stalwart Harry Croker became available and was pulled into fullback at the last minute then played a full game of seconds for the point – he marshalled the backs all day with the scoreboard reaping the benefit.
Schoolboy trialists Nigel Zhang, Riley Alcorn, Silas Lawther and Hayden Pomare were exceptional and showed great courage backing up from a big week of games.
Sydney Uni 63 def. West Harbour 0