Second Grade (Colin Caird Shield)
Second Grade: Southern Districts 25 (Jason Hofmeyr 2, Ben Connolly, Faleula Finau tries; Jason Hofmeyr goal, pen goal) defeated Sydney University 15 (Calum Buckling, Chris Ingate tries; Byron Hodge goal, pen goal) Forshaw Rugby Park.
Third Grade (Henderson Shield)
By Bruce “China” Lin
Third grade a game played by those who just want a game was always going to face a hard slog against the Shire men. But the characters that make up thirds fought to the end. A 29-24 scoreline favouring the Rebels was the end result. But it could have gone to the Students.
After a slow start the team commenced to find their feet and swung the ball freely. Some creative tries were scored. The team comprising of various nationalities have been woven together by the coaches Whitaker and Heslop. When an Australian speaks to a West African who then passes the message to an Irishman who relays that to a Pacific Islander it can get lost in translation. But master linguist coach Gary Whitaker has devised coded hand signals for set moves and tactics to overcome this.
The crowd was slowly building up and a touchline marquee hosting a Ladies Day event was beginning to start. The female population of Sylvania Waters was coming in complete with mobile solariums.
When Souths scored University quickly countered but time ran out in the end. An advantage ruling could have been played further by the referee for a fairy tale finish. But allowing the opposition to get away with a good lead is always hard to peg back in hostile territory.
Hopefully some fine tuning during the week will get the team back in the winning groove against those wild and tough men from Parramatta.
Third Grade: Southern Districts 29 (William Tokaduadua 2, Richard Friedman, Thomas Merlo, James Whelan tries; James Roberts goal, Apolosi Latunipulu goals) defeated Sydney University 24 (Thomas Wilson, Dylan Vieira, Ben Carolan tries; Richard Williams goal, Edward L’Estrange goal, Thomas Wilson goal, pen goal) at Forshaw Rugby Park.
Fourth Grade (Henderson Cup)
By James Cameron (Coach)
4th grade put in a disappointing performance to suffer a 25-12 loss to Southern Districts. It was an uncharacteristic display and certainly not up to the standard that the boys have set themselves with their performances in the past few weeks. Uni found themselves behind 10-0 early in the match and it seemed that panic set in after that as a series of poor decisions and schoolboy errors hampered our attempts to get back into the game. Our set piece was strong however and we were able to score 2 tries from line out drives to only be behind 17-12 at half time, despite a pretty average 30 minutes. In contrast to last week however, the coach’s half time speech didn’t have the desired effect as we scored no further points in the match.
It wasn’t the best feeling in the sheds afterwards but we will take that on board and work harder to ensure it doesn’t happen again. It’s a tough competition and I think the result proves that if we don’t turn up mentally for the match, we’ll go home empty handed. We’re all looking forward to a much improved performance this weekend.
Fourth Grade: Southern Districts 25 (Robert Smith, Michael McLeod, Angus McGrath tries; Jared Elasi 2 goal, 2 pen goals) defeated Sydney University 12 (Tyne Holmes, M Mosquera tries; Justin Fourie goal) at Forshaw Rugby Park.35
First Colts (W. McMahon Memorial Shield)
By Robert Taylor (Colts Head Coach)
It was another very good team display on Saturday, the forwards gave the backs plenty of chances to expresses themselves and they certainly took it. The backs scored five of the seven tries on the day with Luke Lough enjoying the fast clean ball the most by scoring a hat-trick of tries.
Southern Districts started the game with two converted penalties before we could get the ball in our hands, after that we took control of the game and scored seven tries to their one.
Congratulations to Jay Spencer, Zac Von Appen and James Widders-Leece for their 2017 1st Colts debut.
First Colts: Sydney University 45 (Luke Lough 3, Conor O’Doherty, Harry Johnson Holmes, Theo Strang, William McDonnell tries; James Kane 5 goals) defeated Southern Districts 11 (Patrick Kuenzle try; TeOrangi Thompson 2 pen goals) at St Paul’s College Oval.
Second Colts (Shell Trophy)
Second Colts: Sydney University 39 (Alex MacDonald 3, Benny Watt, Tim Hingano, Harry Potter, Daniel Calavassy tries; Harry Potter 2 goals) defeated Southern Districts 17 (Felix Nellen, Zach Stewart tries; Robert Siteine 2 goals, pen goal) at St Paul’s College Oval.
Third Colts (Bill Simpson Shield)
By Gabriel Enright (Coach)
Suffering their second defeat in a row the Students were once again well in control of the match through the first half only to capitulate late in the second to lose the match – 29-33.
South’s were a quality opposition from the start, turning over several breakdowns with their big forward pack. Once the Students committed to cleaning out a flurry of quality ball had them out to a 14-0 lead.
Once again the second half Hoodoo saw a run of good luck to the opposition level the scores and then take the lead in the dying minutes. You have to make your own luck in Rugby – stringing together errors and missed tackles is a sure way to make it bad luck.
Daniel Poletto continues with his excellent form for three points, Dane Stephens had a strong game at No 8 for the two points and Sean Hasegawa scored a few tries for the point.
Third Colts: Southern Districts 33 (Karaitiana Sa’u 2, Thomas Swiderski, Evan Jenkins, Deon Evans-Ao tries; Ben Lewis 4 goals) defeated Sydney University 29 (Claude Platell, Daniel Poletto, James McClelland, Sam Wood, Harry Croker tries; Daniel Poletto 2 goals) at St Paul’s College.
