A schoolboy made his mark on a day of thrilling colts one rugby encounters where tries flowed
A schoolboy shone in colts one today, Souths had an upset win while the Tigers purred on the way to a Premier grade victory against Sunnybank. Full colts and Premer grade wrap here.
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It rained tries at David Wilson Field today, with the Easts Tigers outscoring Sunnybank 48-29 in a point scoring shootout that featured Sunnybank schoolboy Elemasi Latu in the thick of the action.
Thirteen times the scoreboard attended posted tries, eight of them by a Tigers outfit that was never in danger of the defeat, but which could never fully shake the Dragons off the scent.
Second rower Fred Fewtrell, returning from Premier rugby, was a tower of strength in the forwards for Easts while fly-half Connor Claridge’s slick service was a platform on which the Easts’ backline fired.
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But a high of the match was young Latu’s performance at flanker for Sunnybank.
The 17-year-old Sunnybank State High School student Elemasi Latu is as local as they come and colts coach Eddie Keepa was delighted to see him progress after three weeks sidelined through injury.
“He did really well, a local boy who is a good player for us for the future,’’ Keepa said.
The Sunnybank set pieces were a tremendous asset, but Easts were the more polished of the teams when it came to continuity and backline attack.
Keepa rued giving their opponents too much easy ball from mistakes.
“We gave them too much ball - two errors, two tries,’’ Keepa said.
“They took the opportunities but we failed to execute a few times, just silly stuff.
“Our attacking stuff was good. It was just our rugby IQ, on different parts of the field I just felt we took wrong options.’’
Easts would not be doing cartwheels at conceding 29 points, but a win is a win in the home-and-away series leading up to finals.
After scrum and lineout success led to Sunnybank’s first try, Easts got into its groove to expand its advantage to 34-10 early in the second half.
Only an intercept try by Sunnybank winger Blessed Tumua broke Easts sequence of scoring.
One of the best tries came from winger Lachlan Tokome when Easts, faced with centre field ball, chose to go right where Tokome’s pace came into play.
In contrast, John Paul Tominiiko’s mauling try and another by Jack Edwards after his lock buddy Fewtrell had secured lineout ball were ones for old Easts tight five forwards to enjoy.
But the best individual try came courtesy of the dancing feet of Dragons inside centre Samuel Samu who cut back on the inside and jigged and accelerated past defenders from 25m out.
The game was part of the first ever Queensland Premier Rugby Mental Health Round.
All nine clubs will be involved, with the match of the round between Easts and Sunnybank seeing the two clubs contest the Rick Tyrrell Cup.
Rick Tyrrell was a former Queensland Reds representative, who also played club Rugby with both Easts and Sunnybank. Rick unfortunately lost his battle with mental illness in 2015.
“Rick’s death spurred us into action to do whatever we could, to raise awareness of the importance of taking a proactive approach to mental health and suicide prevention strategies,” said his friend, Damon Rielly.
In other games, Wests and GPS played out a 70 points thriller at Sylvan Rd, with the Bulldogs prevailing.
A big, big side, Wests were a handful for their smaller opponents, but one trait of the GPS outfit is that the players do not throw in the towel.
Indeed GPS had a chance to level the game after scoring late, but the attempted conversion went wide and Wests were able to enjoy a 36-34 victory.
At St Lucia, the University colts won 40-12 over Norths, but in no way did the score indicate the closeness of the match.
It was just 5-nil at halftime to The Red Heavies and 19-12 with about 10 minutes to go before University’s class shone.
“I thought we started slowly but came back in the second half and performed close to where we wanted to be,’’ said University coach Derby Malaulau.
“But Norths were really good at the set pieces and caused us some issues and I want give them a wrap for that.’’
Norths coach Glen Dodds said his team was finally able to put more of a 70 minute game together after playing in spurts, and the team’s performance vindicated the processes the squad has been working on.
“Things we have been doing well for 10 or 15 minutes we were able to maintain for the whole match,’’ Dodds said.
“It was an evenly matched game and the final score did not reflect how close the contest was.’’
But in the end University did pick up the pace in the second half, allowing the side to generate some forward ball and as a result the attack flowed better.
At Crosby Park, Clancy Nugent reports on Souths 25-12 win over Brothers, overcoming numerous yellow cards.
After a close first half lead by Brothers, Souths found their feet and won on the back of some counter attacking football.
Souths head coach Rama Chand was impressed with the team’s perseverance with 14 men for a large portion if the game, as well as their turnover attack.
“The cards have been turning points for us in the last few games and they’ve really killed us. Thankfully today we stuck to the plan in the second half and we finished really strong,” Chand said.
“I especially commend our bench for coming on and making a difference.
“We are naturally a team that transitions really well, it has been the efforts off the ball that we have been missing (in the last few weeks) but today our effort off the ball was really good.
“You get pay when you work off the ball usually and today we got points,” Chand said.
Brothers coach Kelevi Tuicolo did not feel his side lived up to their full potential.
“Today was just frustrating that we couldn’t get out of first gear,” Tuicolo said.
“Just as we thought we were getting a roll on, Souths to their credit shut us down,” he said.
The butcher stripes had a five point lead in the first half. That lead, however, was fragile considering Souths had numerous yellow cards across the half.
The second half was a tale of Souths capitalising on Brothers errors, scoring two tries off dropped ball and then defending valiantly to keep Brothers scoreless.
Both sides were evenly poised across the park but it was Souths who were able to turn opportunity into points and take a 25-12 win.
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EASTS V SUNNYBANK
The dancing feet of Aiden Toua and the well rounded performance from ever-present Ben Mowen were highlights in Easts 36-12 win over Sunnybank late today.
The Tigers turned a 12-5 deficit into a comprehensive win, unravelling a Dragons side not short of talent, but one which ruined any chance of an upset through handling errors.
The lop-sided scoreline does not do justice to the competitive nature of the clash, and Sunnybank were not light years from their rivals.
But with solidarity in the set pieces and with the Easts backrowers supporting their mid-field mates, the Tigers were able to construct a platform on which to score four unanswered tries.
One of the tries came from Toua who would have been right at home on the disco dance floors of the 1980s, so fast and furious was his footwork in dancing his way over to score.
That was the flashy side of the Easts win.
Less explosive but just as effective were lumbering runs from backrowers Mowen and Tom Milosevic who made telling breaks from set pieces to put Easts in a position to score on two occasions.
Easts then iced the game late, with a powerhouse scrum enabling Mowen to feed his halfback Eli Pilz who scampered down a narrow blindside to score.
Sunnybank did not lack endeavour, desire or ability and that Easts were only able to snare one second half five-pointer emphasised the Dragons mindset.
But Sunnybank lost the game on the error sheet.
Of the 14 handling errors in the second half, 12 were from Sunnybank and a side cannot afford to provide Easts with free possession, particularly at home.
BROTHERS v SOUTHS
Clancy Nugent reports from Crosby Park.
Brothers pushed to reclaim their spot in the top four today with a dominant 63-5 victory over Souths.
Last years grand finalists won almost every contest across the park, putting on an offensive masterclass that Souths simply could not match.
Brothers head coach Anthony Mathison highlighted his sides improved attack on the back of a down to the wire loss against UQ last week.
“We were willing to actually kick for some territory into field position and then when we did get opportunities in the attacking 22 we were able t5o cash in on those which is something we have not been able to do in the last couple of weeks,” Mathison said
“Nathan Carroll was outstanding for us today with a couple of tries he created particularly with his kicking game,” he said.
Souths coach Todd Dammers praised brothers for their quality of play, acknowledging they were the much better side on the day.
Its not all doom and gloom for Souths, however, with plenty of young guys getting the opportunity to develop.
It is not an excuse, but we have a lot of young guys who are learning on the job,” Dammers said.
“Today we had 4 more debutants and by the end of the game I think there was only one guy over 23,” he said.
Put simply, Brothers attack was too strong for Souths to contain and the points came thick and fast.
After a solid start by both teams the flood gates opened and Souths valiant attempt to stop brothers firing backline was never enough.
