AIC First XV rugby grand final: dynasty continues as St Laurence’s defeat Padua 21-0
St Laurence’s College butted horns with Padua College in the unofficial AIC First XV schoolboy rugby grand final on Saturday. See how it unfolded with our match report and pictures.
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St Laurence’s College finished off a fairytale season with an AIC rugby premiership-winning heave against Padua College this afternoon at Banyo.
AIC PICTURE GALLERY CELEBRATING THE SEASON
A sea of black and gold invaded the pitch, old boys, students and coaches congratulating their playing heroes who could not believe they’d delivered a 21-0 victory.
A victory that brought up the school’s fourth consecutive rugby premiership, three of those being outright premierships.
The Laurie’s community were soaking up a golden era for rugby at the college - an era matching strides with the great squads of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
While tears were being shed among the Laurie’s camp, the Padua boys were still catching their breath after a mammoth 70 minute effort where not once did they waver.
They were brave, but the Laurie’s pick and drive game, spearheaded by Byron Murphy, and the kicking game of Finn Mackay was the ultimate winning recipe.
Mackay’s boot was big and it got his side out of trouble. One two occasions the left foot of the tall flyhalf added three points to the tally from over 40 metres out.
Even with horns going off in the background, Mackay was not distracted.
Only one word came to the mind of St Laurence’s head coach Welmar du Plessis when the full-time siren sounded and it was proud.
“Proud. Proud of the boys,” he said.
“This team... They put in the hard work. I’m proud of them.
“I don’t think too many guys out there gave this team a shot this year.
“We knew we had to believe that we could come here and do it. And we knew it would come down to defence.’”
“We’ve worked hard all season long for that doughnut,” he said.
“To get it in a final like this … That’s what this team’s about.”
A team led by skipper Rylan Lock, who had no reason to be running as hard as he was in the 65th minute when making a terrific trysaving cover tackle.
“Rylan making that with two minutes to go. Many teams would’ve said no … the prop worked 50 metres back to make that.
“That’s what this team’s about, it’s character.
“We want to make our community proud and that’s what we’re about. We want to make the school, old boys and families proud. And that’s how we play … with pride..”
Saturday’s First XV showdown between the competition’s two unbeaten sides was a spectacle.
It began in tense fashion, with both sides threatening from in close.
After 20 minutes of strong collisions, lineout battles and a territorial square off between Mackay and Damon Humphrys, Laurie’s finally burrowed their way over through for try No.1.
In that time, Padua backs Isaac Boal, Kyan Mitchell and Tom Chapman were working overtime returning the ball.
They refused to take a backwards step.
Meeting them with force was a brick wall of Laurie’s boys who went the entire 70 minutes without letting in a point.
Front rowers Rylan Lock, Luka Smith and Byron Murphy were relentless while Brody McLaren and Jack Tuite had a no entry sign dangling above them in the centres.
Indeed Padua deserve praise having fought tirelessly until the final whistle.
Falling 21-nil down to any team is hard to recover from - let alone a Laurie’s outfit whose cover defence in the 65th minute was as gutsy and impressive as it was in the first.
A Ben Davis try, a Tuite try and two expert penalty goals from beyond 40 metres ended up the difference in a historic result for Laurie’s.
FAST FACTS
+Padua College had a resurgent season leapfrogging one win in 2022 to six wins in 2023.
+The last time St Laurence’s College lost was against Padua in round four of 2019.
+St Laurence’s and rivals Ashgrove have almost identical premiership form from 2020-2023 and 2017-2020 respectively.
The last seven years of premiership history looks like this:
2017 Ashgrove
2018 Ashgrove, Iona and St Patrick’s
2019 Ashgrove
2020 Ashgrove and St Laurence’s
2021 St Laurence’s
2022 St Laurence’s
2023 St Laurence’s
Padua head coach Andrew Clyne said Laurie’s were too good and capitalised on his team’s mistakes.
“It’s been an awesome year,” he said.
“We had potential. We thought if we had a winning season that’d be a good start.
“I knew the talent was there it was all about how the Year 11s mixed with the Year 12s and I thought they were awesome. They did really well.
“The longer the season went on we thought we are a real shot.”
Clyne said he knew exactly what was coming - contestable kicks and pick-and-drives. but it was silly errors that cost his side.
“We were on that all week but we made mistakes, they capitalised and we couldn’t handle it.
“When we had opportunities we just made mistakes,” Clyne said about mistakes at the key moments where they could’ve swung momentum.
“I think the potential of the group is really good we just didn't give ourselves a shot today … half the forward pack is Year 11 so they know what it takes now and hopefully this will drive them in the pre-season.”
IN OTHER MATCHES
Ashgrove had a great finish to the season, beating St Edmund’s 40-10 at home.
At one stage the home side was down to 13 men, but even then they looked dangerous.
In a review of the season, coach Richard Graham said the First XV was one of the best groups he had ever had the opportunity to work with.
“They are so connected on and off the field.”
“They are so conscious of how to recalibrate the rugby culture within the school,” he said about the Ash team that both trained and ran onto the field with the school’s Year 5 and 6 teams over the last fortnight.
“We played some fantastic footy, but we were just out of the blocks slowly.”
In the win, backrowers Jasper Barry and Riley Canavan as well as Bailey Caplick proved vital.
Tafito Falaniko Ah-Ki tip your hat after yet another man of the match performance for St Edmund’s.
ASHGROVE TO HOST CRICKET’S AUSTRALIAN IDOL
And at Shorncliffe, St Patrick’s went out with a bang when beating Iona 18-12.
The Paddies boys outenthused their rivals and with their physicality they pressured Iona into making errors.
Flanker Adam Kelly was awarded man of the match again and around him Hopo Leota and Andi Ki worked hard but the game escaped Iona when on two occasions they found themselves down a man.
And In Indooroopilly, St Peters lost 29-15 to Villanova.
Villa had a 5-3 lead at the half after defending their backsides off for the first 35 minutes.
In the second half, they were clinical as could be, making the saints pay for silly mistakes.
St Peters coach Cam Wright put it down to knock-ons, not winning lineouts and not supporting the ball carriers.
In a losing effort, hooker Connor Chalmers, No.8 Vice Latu and flanker Ethan Ramsey were standouts.
For Villa, flanker Ben Addley was immense again as was No.8 Jackson Moloney. Addley was the deserving man of the match.
Year 11 Ned Godwin, younger brother of Easts flyer Gus, made his First XV debut at fullback and was “outstanding” according to coach Eddie Harris.
Harris said the effort from his side, who received two yellow cards, was incredible.
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