Second Grade (Colin Caird Shield)
By Ray Hudd (Coach)
It’s always a great day when you manage to topple the Wicks at Coogee. As usual Randwick came out hard and abrasive turning the 1st half into an arm wrestle. Uni went into the half time break leading 10 points to 7. The Uni Forwards shone through during the second stanza paving the way for another hard fought victory.
Full time Sydney University 57 def Randwick 19
Man of the Match – Byron Wicken
Third Grade (Henderson Shield)
By Jack Leary (Coach)
3rd Grade were looking to bounce back and make a statement with a strong performance against title contenders Randwick after a loss at the hands of Manly last week. True to their word Uni came out and looked in control on the back of a strong set piece and increased physicality.
Two yellow cards and poor execution off the boot however kept Randwick in the game and it looked like the homeside may have come away with the win with 10 minutes to go. Fortunately Uni’s resilience under adversity again prevailed and Ben Carolan was able to pull off one of his text book tries after some patient phase play to seal the result 12-19 to Sydney University.
Full time score Sydney Uni 19 def Randwick 12
Fourth Grade (Henderson Cup)
By Jack Stanford (Player)
4th Grade were looking to maintain their unbeaten status as they arrived at the House of Slime. Some early spark from Grade debutant Harry Croker with support from Patrick Muller and Kazuki Takakura out wide gave University a two try advantage early. A clinical display from the forward pack at set piece allowed Jock Merriman the freedom he needed to cause headaches for the men wearing Myrtle green. With Coach Davies’ abrasive halftime speech still ringing in their ears, the Students were able to maintain a perfect defence in the second half and take a bonus point victory from Coogee.
Full time score Sydney Uni 31 def Randwick 10
Fifth Grade
By Jack Stanford (Player)
With the sun shining down on Coogee Oval, the passionate men of 5th Grade set upon dismantling Randwick from the opening kick-off. Brilliant breakdown work from George Lehmann and Lachlan Argiris laid a solid foundation for the backs to run rampant out wide and boy did Jesse Tela have a field day. Doing his best Julian Savea impersonation, Jesse ran rings around, and through, the opposition. The fixture also saw the return of two of SUFC’s favourite sons; Tom Boidin and Tom Heslop to the field. The Students were too strong in all facets of our great game and came away with a 29-0 victory.
Full time score Sydney Uni 29 def Randwick 0
First Colts (W. McMahon Memorial Shield)
By Robert Taylor (Colts Head Coach)
3rd Colts got the day underway in the way we wanted all Colts teams to perform. Their work ethic in defence and option taking in attack, resulted in a bonus point win. That should have inspired the 2nd Colts and 1st Colts to go out and replicate that same effort. Unfortunately the 2’s let in two early tries and couldn’t quite get back there against a very good 2nd Colts team.
In the 1st Colts game, the forward pack and our ability to convert opportunities into points was the difference. The forwards laid a very strong foundation for us to apply pressure at every scrum and lineout, not allowing Randwick to get any sort of flow going and forcing them into making mistakes. A lot of those mistakes gave us turnover ball which our backs were highly efficient in turning them into points.
Ed King gets the 3 pts for being a continual threat for the Randwick defence, he scored 4 tries, made 5 dominant carries, 4 line breaks and 4 tackle busts. He could easily donate those three points to his back three partners Tim Clements and Nathaniel Tamwoy as well centres Guy Porter and James Armstrong, who all played a big part in his tries.
The 2 points or the the 3 points, could have easily gone to the forward pack as a whole. Harry Johnson-Holmes was awarded the 2 points for his normal industrious work-rate, his ability to constantly influence the game with his competitiveness made a big difference.
Rory Suttor just keeps impressing with his endless work-rate, a lot of his unseen work (hit 30 attacking rucks) led to many of the tries we scored and stopped any Randwick attacks.
This was a surprising scoreline given Randwick had three current Australian U20’s player, Australian Schoolboys and a player nearing his debut at Super Rugby with the Rebels. While we had our representative players, the dominance as a pack up front made a big difference. We have no doubt we will be seeing them as a finals team.
Full time score Sydney Uni 69 def Randwick 5
Second Colts (Shell Trophy)
By Sean Hasegawa (Player)
After a dominant win against Manly last week, 2nd Colts were looking to capitalise upon their momentum to get the job done against a solid Randwick outfit.
Fresh out of their best warm up of the year thus far, the Students came out firing and looked to be in control in the first ten minutes of the game. However, a few handling errors and poor defensive reads left Uni down by two tries to a Randwick side that was making the students pay dearly for their mistakes. The Uni forward pack remained strong at set piece throughout the game but were ultimately unable to convert pressure into points.
The only points Uni accrued were gained off the back of a solid scrum which put inside center – Mitieli Tuinakavaudra who was filling in at number eight – across the chalk which Josh Hardie successfully converted.
Full time score Randwick 17 def Sydney Uni 7
Third Colts (Bill Simpson Shield)
By Gabriel Enright (Coach)
St Paul’s was in all its splendour as a surprisingly big crowd lined the touchline for the Sydney University Colts vs. Randwick Colts 2017 derby day.
Randwick came out of the blocks with several attacking raids that had all the hallmarks of the previous two weeks 50 plus victories the Galloping Greens had opened the season with. The young students repelled the onslaught with a gritty determination and finally managed to drive the visitors back up the field to score first at the 10 minute mark. The teams were split by a single try at the break (7-0).
The second half started just like the first with Randwick on the offensive and the Sydney Uni defence resolute. The difference this time was the boot of Will Wennerbom who surgical demolished the Myrtle Green Machine with long raking clearing kicks into the corner, three superb Penalty goals and a deft grubber in behind the line for Riley Alcorn to ground at full stretch for the match winner.
The students would continue to lift and close the game out 32 to 14 with some exceptional pressure cooker rugby in the tight, out wide and through the edges with the classy centre pairing of Koroisau and Tuinakauvadra breaking the line at will.
With the big Tight 5’s offsetting each other Sydney Uni’s backrow would be the difference – Josh Sheridan at 7 was tenacious for 3 points, Luke Austin continued to shine at 6 for 2 points and Will Wennerbom steered the ship home for 1 point.
Full time score Sydney Uni 34 def Randwick 14