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12th July 1st Grade At last the boys return to form! Pack mentality ruled the day. Our Dominant Eight called the shots from start to finish, barring a couple of brief naps. Actually, I need to have a word about that. The whole team took a nanna-nap for the last 20 minutes of the game when they were two tries up and thought they had the game in the bag. What's worse, the Burnside captain could be heard behind the try-line telling his team we were about to take the foot off the gas and that if they fought back hard and scored twice they'd have us yet, and they damn near did. As a result, we let them back in the game and generously gave them a couple of bonus points. Finals are close and the Premiership Ladder is tight between 2nd and 6th; are we such good sportsmen that we're trying to even it up even more? Other than that, the game was a much better outing for OC than the last few which were so dire in patches that I couldn't be bothered writing reports. The first try from OC was a simple classic slide from Cross at flyhalf, putting it down under the posts for an easy conversion for El Pablo Magnifico. This was followed by a team wide effort of strong phase work and good ball movement ending in Xander Evans carrying it over the line. The next two tries came from the sweat of the forwards as they mauled it inexorably onwards. The momentum carried the ball over the line twice, once for Xander Evans again and once for Ben Suttell. This is testimony to the pack reclaiming their pride and strength after a lapse of a few weeks. The last try of the game was by Sam Oughton following a line out and some good lead up work by Rebbeck and Collins. Most of Burnside's strength came from a pair of strong backs - Mika (not the Souths one, another one) and Tim Lough. We let both of them have more space and time than they deserved. Honourable mentions must go to Xander Evans, Tom Moon (why do they call him Bear?), Peter Cross and Leigh Rebbeck all of whom worked hard throughout. The backline looks more balanced with Cross at fly-half but handling is still a little rusty along the line with too much ball going to ground. Leigh Rebbeck and Juan Aguiar (usually outside centre and wing) are doing well at their new jobs at inside and outside centre. I can hear all you front row forwards asking what the hell difference there is between the three positions; trust me, they're different. Leigh Rebbeck was Man of the Match for his physicality, courage and work-rate. He came off the field in the last few minutes, bleeding and confused. It suits him. 2nd Grade Our second grade notched up another good win. Better than that they are good fun to watch and show a lot of enthusiam, creativity and flair. The penalty count was high this week leading to a disjointed game through no fault of either team but it was nevertheless a good contest and a good display. I gather that we were lacking a few of our regular second grade backs for this game. At least, that's the easiest way to explain the presence of a couple of boys most recently seen in the First Grade scrum playing at inside centre (James Finkemeyer) and wing (Alex Berce). It was a successful experiment. They both performed well and did not often look out of position, other than a certain wistful look on their faces when a ruck was nearby. Berce scored the first try "Lomu style", ploughing through wingers, centres, forwards and everything short of brick walls. The second try came after another bust through run, this time by Finkemeyer, which set up a series of excellent phases across the board eventually putting Henry Winter over the line. Henry Nutt the Pirouetting Prop, bounced and rolled through the defence like a demented pinball, Jo Suttell added his characteristic old school mongrel to the pack, Rory Sheppard gave great chat and Charlie Neate improves with every game (and he was pretty good to start with). Finally, it was great to see Disco Douglas back on the field and at flyhalf. The biggest upset of the round was that he managed to play the whole game. For 80 minutes the sideline supporters waited with baited breath to hear the twang of his muscles snapping but it never came and the sweep had to be abandonned. The word is that Doc Douglas has his money on a half time exit. Seriously though, he had a very solid game and he and Jo Suttell added experience, structure and direction to the youthful team's energy and spirit. 21st June 2008 Premier Grade If you blinked (twice) and missed the fleeting moments when Souths had the ball and scored you would have thought we were all over this game. We certainly had a mountain possession, but nothing came of it. There was a lot of good phase play but we couldn't manage to land the needed knockout punch. Having hoped for drastic improvements once the Falcons returned we instead find our state forwards a bit lethargic. Line outs were good again but scrums were still suspect and we were wheeled too often. In the forwards, Xander Evans and Paul Reynolds had good games and would have achieved more with more support around them. The back line was lacking any spark. We were trying to run it wide without first going forward and were caught behind the gain line by Souths' Declan Scragg (who has now moved to the Gold Coast, and good riddance). Jon Collins made his first appearance for Old Collegians' backline. Despite the raised eyebrows from those who think of Jon as only a forward, he played a solid game in the centres. There's no doubt he will do better when the new line up grows accustomed to each other. The new back line also featured Todd Grant in his No. 10 debut, Will Sadler at fullback and Peter Cross as winger. Although those boys are all relatively new to those positions, there was a glimmer of potential. The coming weeks will tell whether anything comes of that potential. Ultimately, we lost the ball too often at crucial moments of the game, throwing away the try scoring opportunities which should have won it for us. Second Grade After the chaos of the last month, a unit is emerging from the confusion – and it's a unit of youth, skill and pace to which Souths had no response. A good first half set up a deserved win, but given that Souths is bottom of the ladder and had little to throw at us, we really ought to have walloped them by a lot more and grabbed a bonus point in the process. Simon Allport, missing last week and stitches only recently out, had an immediate impact on the game. There is definitely some 'Mad Dog' in this one. Our pack worked hard and was hungry and stole possession for the flowing backline. This pressure brought about tries. Simon Allport scored the first as he charged down a kick. Sam Oughton, in an 80 minute cameo appearance, scored twice in quick succession. Unfortunately, the referee disallowed the first in circumstances which aggrieved the OC coach to the brink of aneurism. Charlie Neate snagged the third. After the break, the Souths team lifted but couldn't break through despite a long period of possession, due to multiple consecutive penalties against the OC boys. At this point Collegians took their foot of the gas long enough to become a little lazy mentally, allowing Souths to cross for their only score of the game. In the final twenty minutes, reserves came on and found themselves enjoying the foundation laid by the starting fifteen. Ben Mattsen fitted back into the blue and red quickly after a few years away, and managed in the process to take the field in all four senior grades today. Though the entire team played well, standout performers were Simon Allport and Austin Wakeham in the forwards, James Hayden at five eight and Charlie Neate at inside centre. All in all, this was a good performance but not perfect, and must be a
starting point for a strong run into the finals, which are only ten games away. Third Grade Third grade played well and it was good to see them get a strong win on the boards. There was very good continuity in patches and Matt Fuss' try was a great example of that. It came from a long series of good phase play which sucked in defenders, with everyone doing the basics well. Well done!
I didn't see this game myself but I'm told effort and commitment was good but basic skills and communication were lacking. That sounds to me like a team who aren't training together. I suspect they're not. It won't get better until they do.
I didn't see this game, but clearly another thumping was handed out by the strong Port/Burnside team. Mind you, the margin was a good twenty points less than the previous two, so that's an improvement even with the absence of Lee Fata taken into account. I'm reliably informed that there was a great debut from Ashleigh Smith and another excellent game from the newcomer Laurel Eyton.
14th June 2008 1st Grade Brighton 31 v Old Collegians 8 2nd Grade Brighton 10 v Old Collegians 7 Firstly, ignore the score. Irrelevant. This was a great showing by the
OC 2s and I don't care what the scoreboard said. The stirring in the red and
blue hearts from the last quarter of the previous game surfaced again at kick
off of this game and quickly became a torrent of red and blue courage and
commitment. 7th June 2008 FIRST GRADE One could be forgiven for thinking that with our Falcons back we'd have romped this game in, but not so. We gained the lead only in the second half and it looked dangerous more than once. Woodville could be forgiven for thinking that the final score flattered us a little. After the final whistle Collegians' were grimly muttering "a win's a win". Not the highest praise. For a start, many of our State Reps were on the sidelines with broken cheek-bones, strained muscles or a case of the sniffles (diddums). Added to that, we still have a baker's dozen of other senior players out to injury and illness. Of course, with or without our best men Woodville are always trouble at home anyway. Better OC squads than the ones we fielded this week have come a cropper against Woodies. Despite the best of intentions we always seem to end up playing to their style of game rather than our own. The lineouts were much better this week than they were against Port Adelaide in the previous game, not that that is saying much. With senior forwards like Czeglik, Burmester and Tedge back in the pack we not only won most of our own ball and some of theirs we even managed to maul it over the line for a try. The other try came from that illusive sprite Will Sadler dashing through a narrow crack not ten yards off the line. Scrums were reasonable and some great yards were made off the back of them from Caveman Berce at Number 8 but he too often lost the ball in contact. I'd have a severe word with him about this but he's a lot bigger than me. Young Todd Grant has a Big Boot for a Small Man which was a very useful option at penalties and in open play and accounted for 13 of the 23 points. Peter Cross had a hard job against Warren Duff, and while Peter didn't make much ground in attack neither did Duffy so we can call that even. That said, if Crossy is an inside-centre then I'm the Sultan of Brunei. Heavens be praised for Ben Suttell who seems not to have realised his excellent State season is over for 2008; he brought his rep game to club footy this week. Finally, our greatest thanks go to the nice young man from Woodville who utterly flubbed a try which would otherwise have meant the teams had two tries each and only kicks making up the difference.
I thought the second grade looked a bit like patch-work. On making some enquiries, I understand there were more than a few last minute apologies and a team was only scraped together by coaxing two fourth graders off the recovery bench from their game played an hour earlier. We should give thanks then to the evergreen and masterly Andy Marshallsay and to newcomer Glen Smith in his OC debut. (It isn't always like this mate), and to the Reserves for third grade (who had driven all the way from their game at Onkaparinga). Thanks in particular to Ben James and Charlie Neate for making the extra effort, and probably saving the evergreen and masterly Andy Marshallsay's life in the process. A few minutes into the game our teeny tiny back-line sprang into speed and skill-mode. Rowan Mein ghosted through from outside-centre and pinched a rapid thirty metres before being brought down in an obvious act of thuggish trickery by the Rams. This poor act of sportsmanship (fancy actually making the effort to chase opponents in cover defence!) left our Rowan unable to get up due to a damaged AC joint. He painfully/selfishly left the field to try and source a replacement joint and subsequently the Rams rammed in two quick Trys. The first half was mostly one way traffic, and definitely the wrong way. Our teeny tiny back-line lost the use of speed and skill mode from their OGRCs (on ground rugby computers) and made too many errors while attempting to get over the advantage line. The Rams played like England; boring but effective. It seems that hard straight running in close is a form of rugby that should bear a lesson to our young second graders. Get the big guys on the ground quickly or pay the price in yards. NOTE: Rugby is a contact sport. Not "contact" like the gentle attentions of the ladies in the Penthouse movies, "contact" like that delivered by Jake the Muss in the 'Once Were Warrior' movies. Can we please aim for less pat and more splat? Early in the second half things looked grim but something stirred within red and blue hearts. With the match safely lost, Collegians' lifted. Led by Simon Allport, Rory Sheppard and James Hayden, the defence stopped pushing and started pounding. A lift in effort and intensity brought not only respectability to the youthful players but hope to the supporters and no doubt the coaches too. At the end of the game our lift in effort and commitment was deservedly rewarded with a try to Austin Wakeham who decided that after all his hard work he would score the try, and not one of the 28 unmarked men in support. In short, good in patches but patches are only good for making quilts. We
showed that we can play ay a high intensity despite major obstacles, if this
level can be maintained then none shall stand in our path. THIRD GRADE FOURTH GRADE Just like in the second grade game between our respective clubs, the Rams looked well drilled and disciplined and they did the basics well enough to thump us. I am reliably informed that they had nearly every fourth grade man at BOTH training sessions the week before this game. By comparison, our fourths are a bunch of blokes who don't train at all and looked like it. The Rams made us look pretty shabby. We were the poster kids of poor support play and lack of ball security. Line-outs were abysmal. If we can't get these basics right, it will be a dismal season. However, the scrums weren't bad and there were solid efforts from most guys on the pitch. Lawrence Hartney played a courageous game at five-eighth and Ory (I can't recall whether it was Luke or Andrew) showed a lot of mongrel. However, the Post-Match Tirade accurately identified that all the gusto, effort and courage in the world will not get us far if we don't train. So start turning up, you lot. It wasn't a lot of fun to watch, and I doubt it was much fun to play.
24th May 2008
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