Colts one rugby: Easts Tigers display their claws, while Brothers beat Bond University
Easts and University secured big wins while Brothers overcame Bond in colts 1 rugby this afternoon.
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Easts rugby’s Zac Crothers lived the hookers dream as his colts 1 outfit overpowered GPS 36-5 this afternoon at David Wilson Field.
As the years roll by, Crothers may well take centre stage at reunions, or sit his grandchildren on his knee to recall the day he scored two tries - one from long distance and the other from close range.
Today’s 30m scamper to the tryline for his first try may well be extended to 50m or 60m as time passes, while his second five pointer took a more traditional path for a hooker as he latched onto a rolling maul and barrelled 10m to score.
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There were times when Crothers, a Churchie old boy and schoolboy Barbarians representative, looked like a man in a boys world.
He should probably stand out, having been hardened last season by his year in colts, but also by the experience of making his Premier debut aged just 17.
Crothers, No. 7 Alex Schmit and No. 8 Ben Stoddart were pillars in the Easts pack which dominated their rivals the more the match progressed.
GPS were again willing, but frustratingly the Galloping Greens gave away too many penalties under pressure from the Easts breakdown which enabled the Tigers to feast on field position.
Running into the wind, Easts established a 19-5 halftime advantage by running in some lovely backline tries.
Good continuity at the breakdown and then some expansive ball movement saw centre and winger Tyrees Wilson and Lachlan Tokome break through several times in the first half, with a wide blindside raid seeing Tokome dive over to open the scoring.
Easts maintained possession to again work their way up field, and after Stoddart had gone close, Tigers halfback Will Kirk won a wrestling match to score on the blindside.
At 12-nil, Easts momentum was snapped by a penalty, enabling GPS to seize their moment and create a movement which led to Ben Geraghty plunging over.
However, Easts’ bounce back was swift and to the point, with fly-half Connor Claridge, a BBC old boy, firing a wide ball to his left.
Easts winger Lucas Niedzwiecki, who must have been a sprinter at school, latched onto the pass and then scorched across Wilson Field to score and make iot 19-5 at the break.
Such was Easts’ second domination, GPS did well to restrict them to three tries – two scored by Crothers and one by fullback Jacob Condon.
BROTHERS vs BOND UNIVERSITY
Yellow cards, big hits, late drama and dazzling tries, the Brothers Rugby club came out on top
on a breezy afternoon at Crosby Park winning 27-17.
Brothers dominated early on with some physical ball running and clever kicking but it would turn into an entertaning tug of war
The first points came in the first 10 minutes with Brothers Captain Nick Cross barging over from close range.
Bond fought back into the grind leading to Brothers inside centre Hoani Ford-Stevens given a yellow card for a high tackle.
Although, it was the Brothers who capitalised with a steaming 50m run from hooker Hudson Crieghton, throwing players out of his way.
The run put the northsiders in prime position with a heads up cross-field kick from fly half Jake Pappin putting it right on the money for fullback Athen Wala to go over untouched.
But the extra man started to play its role for Bond University scoring the next two tries in under 5 minutes.
A chip landed perfectly for fly half Matt Minogue diving on the ball from close range putting the visitors on the board.
A penalty sent Bond up field and a simple spread put slippery winger Zac Palmer over in the right-hand corner.
Bond went into halftime with a two-point lead at 10-12 .
A quick start after halftime had Bond on the backpedal, resulting in the games second yellow card, this time given to Bond substitue Logan Watene.
Brothers retook the lead straight after scoring with outside centre Ryan Sheppard scoring in the corner.
Some physical football followed until Brothers went over again with a smart offload from Pappin giving winger Ben Herne 40m of room scoring untouched in the corner.
Bond weren’t giving up though and jumped right back into the game through a quick spread giving flanker Nick Dehring a try.
A five-point margin was the difference with five minutes left but Brothers held strong and iced the game on the siren with Hudson Crieghton awarded a late try.
Brothers Head Coach Kelevi Tuicolo said the two sides were very similar but they key to the win was playing to the conditions.
“Our carries and primary support on the tackle was so much better than last week, GPS opened our eyes to but this week they were so much better on the breakdown,” Mr Tuicolo said.
“Our scrum is coming a long well, its something we work on a lot so really pleased about that.”
Tries
Brothers – 5. Nick Cross, 15. Athen Wala, 13. Ryan Sheppard, 14. Ben Herne, 2. Hudson Crieghton
Bond – 10. Matt Minogue, 14. Zac Palmer. 7. Nick Dehring.
Yellow/Red Cards
Brothers – Yellow, 12 Hoani Ford-Stevens
Bond – Yellow, 23. Logan Watene
In the University v Sunnybank clash, The Students won 50-21, with Uni coach Derby Malaulau please with the contnuity his team was able to generate after a close start.
In the Wests vs Norths game, Wests came out on top with a strong 43 to 7 victory.