University beat Brothers in colts one rugby at Crosby Park, GPS and Easts win, Bond Uni victory
On a day when his school was playing for the GPS First XV premiership, Brisbane Boys College old boy Samuel Kelly-Knowles generated his own milestone moment with a five star performance for University colts against Brothers.
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On a day when his school was playing for the GPS First XV premiership, Brisbane Boys College old boy Samuel Kelly-Knowles generated his own milestone moment with a five star performance for University colts against Brothers.
University won the top of the table clash 47-24, inflicting Brothers first loss of the season while enhancing its own reputation as premiership front runners.
No. 8 Kelly-Knowles scored three of his team’s seven tries, but if you ignore the score sheet merely observe the match, you would have plucked Kelly-Knowles and Uni lock George Gibson our as the pick of the players.
But Kelly-Knowles went to the next level, with his last of three tries a barnstorming, never-say-side effort across 25 of the Crosby Park turf.
“Sam Kelly-Knowles was outstanding, absolutely outstanding,’’ said University coach Derby Malaulau.
“It is his first year in colts, but he is playing like he has been part of the colts team for years.
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University’s handling errors were minimal, and the players looked a confident side and a team with faith in each other playing a ball in hand game.
Their skill, underpinned by aggression carrying the ball and then once the ball was on the ground, was key to the success.
“I thought our possession, in terms of the intensity, allowed us to control it better.
“We always put trust in each others abilities, but at the same time we have been working on broken play and at the same time ensuring we have support players around and that is working for us.’’
Brothers were good, they were spirited and skilful - it was just that University were more polished and simply a better side on the day.
“We tried a few things but they did not make many mistakes,’’ said Brothers coach Kelevi Tuicolo.
“We knew how they were going to play it. Today we just were not good enough to stop them to be honest.’’
University opened the scoring when halfback Finnegan Hearn skipped through to score after the Brothers defence had been exposed through Uni’s possession based game.
But twice Brothers were able to rebound from University scores to post tries from the restart - once through lock Nick Cross and again courtesy of winger Ben Hearne after the Red Heavies had been unable to secure kick-off ball.
Those two tries kept Brothers in the first half trailing 21-10, but around them University were the better side and the tries of Hearn, Kelly-Knowles and flanker Dougal Perrers reflected University’s standing in the game.
A try just after halftime to giant hooker Jake Tierney extended University to 28-10, but Brothers never give in, particularly at home.
Brothers nearly scored through No.8 Titi Nofoagatotoa after a wonderful passing exchange, but Uni flanker Natyhan Bell and fly-half Joshua Russell sandwiched him in cover defence.
But still Brothers pushed on and they deserved to be rewarded when halfback George Tarabay looped around his fullback Mellish and Nofoagatotoa to score and reduce the margin in 28-17.
Uni blew the score out again to 33-17 when Pat Elekana scorched over, and in the heat it was a bridge too far for Brothers.
Scores: University 47 (S Kelly-Knowles 3, F Hearne, J Tierney, D Perrers, P Elekana; J Mellish 6 conv) def Brothers 24 (N Cross 2, B Hearne, G Tarabay tries, Tarabay 2 convs).
Wests vs Bond University
If this was how rugby was played in the top tier you wouldn’t find a spare seat, with Bond University’s champagne rugby sending a statement through colts 1 in strong 40-19 win against Wests.
Bond are pushing for second place and are well and truly in the fight against Brothers and UQ after the showing this afternoon.
Coach Brenden Jones said he’s blessed to have such a talented group but says they need to clean up the errors before finals.
“They’re a very skilful group of kids, so what you’ve got to do as a coach is look at the skills and then get the best out of them, so if we try and strangle that then we don’t play good footy do we,” Jones said.
No. 8 Nate Searle scored two tries and was the best on the park, and Jones said he only moved into the forward pack this year.
“He has played in the backs all his life, I saw him at training and I said, ‘who’s that forward?’.”
“It’s been a masterstroke because now we have good hands in that middle pod, he breaks the line well, has good speed and he knows how to run and position people, he’ll go a long way at number eight.”
Wests were coming off a good performance against Sunnybank last week and flew out of the blocks with a try to crafty fullback Edan Zaupa.
Bond started to show their dominance with two consecutive tries to No.8 Nate Searle.
A nice play from inside their own half gave Wests another try through winger Samuel Warner with Zaupa again involved.
But Bond really started to chance their hand.
They scored through a genius set play off the kick-off which was short and around head height, centre James Nicholls steamed onto the ball taking it with one hand and running 30 metres untouched.
One of the tries of the year, from inside their 22 saw winger Hamish Roberts beat a number of tired defenders before a fantastic flick pass to prop Marlon Jones.
Jones streaked down the field before linking back up with Roberts on the inside who scored under the posts.
Half time Bond 28-12
The second half started like it finished with Bond scrumhalf pushing over to score from close range just three minutes in.
Fly half Lale Leota scored a great individual try under the posts but it was too little too late.
A grinding second half ended with star winger Hamish Roberts stepping through defence and sprint 50m on the siren.
Wests Coach Robert Riori said his side missed to many one-on-one tackles and lost the key moments.
“You put it down to key moments, there were two tries where we were hot on attack and then they won 90m to score it was one of those games where we never in it at the start,” Riori said.
SCORE
Bond University 40 (N. Searle –10’, N. Searle - 13’, James Nicholls – 19’, H. Roberts 28’, S. Dalton 39’ H. Roberts 70’. Conversions - Hamish Roberts 5/6)
Wests 19 (E. Zaupa 3’, S. Warner 18’, L. Leota conversions L. Leota 2/3)
In other colts one matches, Easts beat Souths 26-10 and GPS beat Norths 40-0.
GPS coach Drew Vautin was delighted to see nil against his side.
“We worked a fair bit on our defence and the boys did really well because Norths were physical and played with heart,’’ Vautin said.
“It was a big team effort but Reese Wilson-Hodge was outstanding along with Archie Halliday and Harry Barker.’’