AIC First XV rugby round 1: Laurie’s end 13 year curse
The AIC First XV rugby season started with a bang today, with St Laurence’s College snapping a 13 year curse among four cracking season openers.
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The AIC First XV rugby season started with a bang today, with St Laurence’s College toppling Marist Ashgrove among four cracking season openers.
Work experience student Nick Tucker covered the St Laurence’s win over Marist College Ashgrove, while Iona College were last-gasp winners of Villanova College in another upset.
In the remaining two games, St Patrick’s College ground out a win over a tough St Edmund’s College and Padua College defeated a persistent St Peters Lutheran College.
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At Crawford Oval, Nick Tucker reported the 13-year curse is over, with St Laurence’s opening the AIC First XV Schoolboy rugby union competition with a stunning upset win over Marist College Ashgrove.
The 15-7 nailbiter delivered St Laurence’s first win over competition powerhouse Ashgrove since 2008 and it produced a yellow and black invasion onto the pitch at full-time by the reserves bench, students, teachers and even parents celebrating the drought-breaker.
Water bottles were squirted in the air, hats were thrown high amid the heaving
throng and it was hugs galore as “Laurie’s’’ had defeated their greatest foe.
St Laurence’s head coach Welmar Du Plessis said: “It’s been 13 years since we last beat them-that’s all we wanted to do- break the duck.”
“The plan for today was defence, to tackle them out of the game and be brutal.
And that’s what we got. We never gave up and we played for 70 minutes.”
The victory was all the sweeter given the two teams were scheduled to play in
the AIC grand final last season before Covid-19 restrictions forced the cancellation of the fixture.
“We didn’t want to make it about last year. It’s a new team and a new season.
Last year was unlucky for the guys not to play but that was never in the discussion.”
St Laurence’s did their recently departed old boys proud, with a harassing, crash tackling game plan, which robbed Ashgrove of space for their exhilarating backs to run free.
The only wobbly piece in their brick wall defence was discovered in the 26th minute but it took a series of slick passes to give 15-year-old winger Pat Tierney his maiden first XV try.
But the joy was short-lived as fly-half Lachlan Marchant answered back against the run of play.
Marchant blocked then towed through an attempted grubber kick by opposition fly-half Tate Cole and regathered to score from close range.
He then rolled the ball into the silenced Ashgrove ‘swarm’ of students behind the dead ball line, spotlighting the high stakes of one of the competitions greatest rivalries.
St Laurence’s moved beyond a converted try buffer when captain Harry Holt scored out wide following a clever switch play off a lineout close to the line soon after half time for the final points of the match.
Ashgrove coach Brendan Kiernan said: “We have to work on game management. We need to regroup and play with more enthusiasm. There wasn’t much in it today.”
Ashgrove Assistant Coach Jon Fitzgerald said the shock loss did not mean his team’s titles chances were doomed.
“There are still six games to go. It’s a pretty even competition. Anything can happen, just got to improve our decision-making.
At Andrew Slack Oval, Iona College winger Sully Hoad scored on the bell to clinch a 20-18 victory for his team over Villanova College.
In a ripping start to the season, Villa got away to lead 18-10 before two second half tries wrestled Iona marginally ahead.
It was a wonderful game between two evenly matched sides that went back and forth across both halves of rugby.
Villa seemed to have the game won, but one last surge ended in Hoad’s dramatic crossing of the line.
Iona prop Saxon Warwick was enormous on a heavy ground and his legs must have felt like dead weights by the end of proceedings.
Iona fullback Jeremy Trappett was another eye-catching performer, fielding the slippery ball and carrying it against his chest like a child would a newborn lamb.
“Either team could have won,’’ said Iona College director of sport Keith Harron.
Villanova coach Paul Davey said his best players were Harry Grant-Smith (prop), Joey Wilson (fullback) and No.8 Tom Lawrance.
St Patrick’s also had a season opening win over a gallant St Edmund’s College at Ipswich.
Paddies won 17-8, getting down and dirty after rain had soaked the ground.
Coach Joshua Neilsen said his team “tightened things up, kept the ball in hand and grinded out an ugly win’’. “We played a lot of territory as well with the weather,’’ he said.
Best for St Patrick’s was outside centre Tim Ryan, No.8 Ellis Lloyd and halfback Jackson Dows.
St Edmund’s College coach Andrew Kirk was so enthused by the performance of his team, he felt they were the better team.
“We performed pretty well. We just have to learn how to win,’’ he said.
Kirk said he knew Paddies would be strong in the set piece and “all that was in the second half was an intercept ball’’.
Clay Kemp at open flanker was best for Eddies, while Tyler Cuthbert-Hough at fullback and winger Hayden Molkentien were outstanding.
At Banyo, Padua College had a 36-12 win over a gallant St Peters Lutheran College, with the defensive line speed of the Padua defenders impressing coach Shane Buckley as much as anything.
“We kept the mistakes down and played in their territory,’’ Buckley said. “It was a fantastic effort.’’
Padua captain and hooker Dan Healy was tremendous, while No.8 Max Hermann was imposing. Flanker Thomas Studley also shone while winger Nathan Creeley had a blinder, on four or five occasions kicking ahead and chasing for all his worth on a day when every metre was like gold.
St Peters coach Russell Todd was as proud as punch of the revitalised Saints.
He said Padua were “a lot bigger than us’’ but St Peters did well in the scrum and lineout.
“It came down to decision making errors early on,’’ Todd said.
“And Padua punished us and that was the difference.
“But our character was great.’’
He said St Peters teams of the past may have been rolled but his team’s grit was unquestioned.
St Peters best player was flanker James Roberts. “He was the smallest player on the field but his work rate was outstanding.’’
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