Second Grade (Colin Caird Shield)
By Ray Hudd (Coach)
The Pirates came out strong early to take the lead 7 nil. Uni regained their composure and started to play Rugby. Some great off load skills by Nick Champion de Crespigny allowed Tim Clements and Harrison Cully to sail through the West Harbour line. Uni were rewarded with a scrum penalty under the posts to take the lead 26 points to 7 at half time.
The second half opened up with some fantastic support play from the whole team with three amazing tries straight from the kick off. Strong performances up front from Byron Wicken, Jack McCalman, Ben Betts and Siaosi Halaifonua paved the way for our outside backs to find space.
Man of the Match – Siaosi Halaifonua
Full time score Sydney Uni 55 def. West Harbour 14
Third Grade (Henderson Shield)
By Jack Stanford (Player)
Despite the sunshine pouring over Concord, the Thirsty Thirds were deployed on the back oval to take on the Pirates. The switch to the smaller ground stifled the University back line and meant the Students had to rely on a clinical display from the forward pack at scrum time to maintain possession and field position.
Making his debut in Grade, Harry Potter may as well have been wearing an invisibility cloak as he scored a magical try off a deft kick. The young wizard’s impressive day continued as he crossed the try line again and had a fine kicking game in partnership with James Kane. Despite a spirited resurgence from Wests, the sheer dominance at set piece allowed the Blue and Gold to control the game and were unlucky to miss out on a bonus point.
Full time score Sydney Uni 21 def. West Harbour 12
Fourth Grade (Henderson Cup)
By Harry Croker (Player)
On what turned out to be a fine day for rugby, despite an earlier torrential weather forecast, the students travelled to Concord to topple the West Harbour Pirates.
Bolstered with big bodies, the men in black and red looked like they would dominate Uni with their size, however the piggies wearing the blue and gold hoops lead by example and met strong carries with even stronger tackles, putting a stop to any momentum from the Pirates.
The first half proved frustrating for Uni as unforced errors kept Wests in the game. It was only a matter of time before Uni’s superior fitness and physicality kicked in with the forwards covering lots of ground through direct running and excellent ball movement. A suburb try from enforcer, Angus Chapman came towards the end of the first half, off the back of great running rugby from George Lehmann and Aidan Brown. Unsuccessful conversions kept the game within reach for the Pirates and after a silky backline move, the score was 15-14 with 8 minutes remaining in the match, despite Uni outscoring Wests three trys to two.
A coach killer from West Harbour saw John Paea score from the kick off to give Uni some room to breathe with the score 20-14 after another unsuccessful conversion. Finally a penalty try was awarded to the students on the bell making the final score 27-14, allowing Uni to live to see another day. Best on ground went to Pommy important, Ben Stanton, who straightened Uni’s attack and defense from outside centre with strong carries and tackles.
Full time score Sydney Uni 27 def. 14
First Colts (W. McMahon Memorial Shield)
By Robert Taylor (Colts Head Coach)
It was a very good three from three for the Colts group on Saturday, there was plenty to be pleased about with the quality of how each team played. Even though it wasn’t the strongest West Harbour teams I thought the way we moved the ball extremely well and retained possession to build pressure was prositive, we will need more of this with two big games coming up.
For first Colts; Nathaniel Tamwoy was extremely dangerous every time he got the ball outwide and was able to keep the ball alive more than not if he went into contact. It was good to see Tom Horton make his 2nd appearance for the Colts after returning from injury and being with the Australian 20s squad, he added a lot of physicality to the forward pack. Starth Yeo, a new Colt to the club managed to grab four tries, not forgetting a lot of good lead up work by the forwards and the backs inside him, he has showed a real knack for finishing. Miti Tuinakauvadra is starting to show a lot of promise, he added some extra go forward in attack and defence.
While we have Rawson Cup being played at the moment as well, getting the balance just right is the challenge week to week, the players who are playing two games a week are showing some real drive to keep delivering high quality performances. We have two big weeks coming up, two games away; Souths and then Eastwood, who beat Randwick a couple of weeks ago in 1st Colts. We are looking forward to the challenge in front of us.
Best & Fairest:
3: Nathaniel Tamwoy
2: Miti Tuinakauvadra
1: Starth Yeo
Full time score Sydney Uni 78 def. West Harbour 0
Second Colts (Shell Trophy)
By Ed Renton (Player)
Gifted with perfect weather for Saturday’s game, we added to our string of consecutive wins. West Harbour came out of the blocks hard with big ball runners showing an eagerness for contact. Their fly-half was handy, using chip kicks to manipulate our defensive line, whilst their outside backs were fast and looked dangerous. Our defence scrambled early on and we had to work very hard throughout the game to keep them scoreless. Bati Koroisau perhaps tried a little too hard as he picked up a yellow card for a huge tackle! He certainly made up for lost time though, scoring himself two meat pies and had a hand in others on the back of his strength through contact.
Once again, the backs were given clean set-piece platforms from the forwards – we still have work to do to convert our advantage at scrum and lineout into points. Will Terry had another blinder, scoring two tries, as did Jock Capel, whose defensive presence was immense.
Eventually, as our communication lifted throughout the game and our fitness allowed us to play a fast-paced game, we looked well and truly comfortable and scored some great individual and team tries. It is encouraging to see that we are able to score tries from set piece, counter attack, and unstructured situations.
Full time score Sydney Uni 46 def. West Harbour 0
Third Colts (Bill Simpson Shield)
Full time score Sydney Uni 45 def. West Harbour 12