GPS rugby: Nudgee College edges out St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace College in a thriller
Nothing stirs the emotions each winter more than the sight of young men in Nudgee jerseys confronting Terrace jumpers on a rugby pitch, and so it was the case in a GPS classic at Tennyson.
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GPS First XV rugby premiership contenders St Joseph’s Nudgee College emerged from the scrap of their lives to wriggle past arch rivals St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace College in a battle royale at Tennyson on Saturday.
The Nudgee players, with hearts in their mouth, were relieved to prevail 24-19 as their Terrace counter parts produced a Jekyll and Hyde impersonation to almost steal victory.
Just seven days earlier Terrace conceded more than 60 points to BBC, and one could almost be forgiven for thinking Terrace were foxing against BBC, such was the contrast in their performance today.
“I have been joking to a few people about how we tanked last week,’’ smiled Terrace coach Ryan Schultz through the disappointment of defeat.
“The reality of last week was it was our first game together and BBC are a quality outfit.’’
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Indeed the Terrace performance was so good today, so well organised and spirited, it would be a shame if it was a one-off effort and not a foundation for greater things ahead.
“I told the boys to be proud of their efforts, it was a great performance, but none of this means anything if we don’t go on with it,’’ Schultz said. “We have five more opportunities to build on this and better ourselves.’’
Director of rugby Sean Graham was not surprised by Terrace’s resistance.
“We did expect it would be a grind,’’ he said. “We tried not to focus on their performance last week and every Nudgee-Terrace contest is always hotly contested.
“They never go away. That is something we have learned about Terrace.’’
So good were Terrace in repelling Nudgee’s backline advances in the first half, they forced Nudgee to change tactics at halftime and pursue a more forward based game.
“Credit to them. They defended well and probably forced us to play a little outside our attacking system,’’ Graham praised.
“We like to use the full width of the field, and we just weren’t able to do that because we were not getting any rewards, so we decided to go through them rather than around them.’’
Graham said he was happy that his side was still able to find their way to victory despite Terrace’s challenge.
Nudgee opened the scoring in enterprising fashion when their man of the match, winger Sione Tapuosi, flashed over in the opening 90 seconds after captain Lastus Auskai had probed a wide blindside.
But any thoughts of an easy day at the office for Nudgee were quickly dispelled when Nudgee’s effort to repeat their success on the outside was foiled by a long line of defenders in red jerseys.
Terrace’s desperation on the day was emphasised when lock Angus Munn chased a kick ahead from his winger Jono van Aswegen and forced a turnover of possession with a driving tackle on his Nudgee opponent.
Although Nudgee controlled the scrum, Terrace boldly refused several penalty kicks at goal, instead opting to pack scrums.
For 10 or so minutes, following Munn’s inspiring tackle, Terrace dominated territory and their reward was so see van Aswegen race over to score. His conversion put Terrace in front 7-5 at halftime.
When the second half swung around Nudgee opted for a ruck and maul assault when attacking the line and after much toil, flanker Kyle Schrammm burrowed his way over to score amid a heap of legs and arms and bodies.
From a 12-7 advantage Nudgee extended the lead to 17-7 with another hand to hand combat try, this time from lock Oliver Harvey.
But Terrace were spirited to the core and although there was no crowd due to COVID-19 restrictions, the players generated their own atmosphere.
They were amped up even more when quick turnover ball saw skipper Dave Vaihu launch into a counter attack that enabled Terrace winger Devin Pule’anga to score and cut the margin to just 17-14.
Then came a telling blunder from match officials who remarkably missed Nudgee’s knockout from an attacking lineout.
Directly from that error, Nudgee scored to take them to 24-14.
But back Terrace came to again reduce the margin when winger van Aswegen scored to set the stage for a grandstand finish.
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On the Darling Downs, Ipswich Grammar School overcame Toowoomba Grammar School 31-12.
On a classically cold and windy Toowoomba day, the first half was a stop start affair with both sides struggling with accuracy and continuity.
The IGS backs capitalised on their limited opportunities to take IGS to a handy 19-7 lead at half time. Toowoomba were able to keep in touch throughout the second half with a dominant line out, kicking game and scrum.
The second half saw the enterprising IGS backs create opportunities which resulted in two tries from IGS best Xavier Stowers, Ethan King and Nick Mitchell (#7).
The Southport School beat Brisbane State High School 49-19, with TSS coach Adrian Blundell praising his team’s set piece, kicking game and “our ability to transfer pressure’’.
But certainly a fine kicking game in windy conditions backed by a willing forward pack paved the way to the team’s success.
BSHS coach Matthew Thornton said there were green shoots in his team’s efforts.
“Our young guys who are new to First XV rugby started finding their groove and certainly proved their ability to handle that level of rugby which is exciting for us going into next week,’’ Thornton said.
He said BSHS were patchy to start with, but showed good intensity at the breakdown and certainly improved into the second half.
At Northgate, Brisbane Boys College beat Brisbane Grammar School 37-3 in a scoreline which BGS probably did not deserve, although the better side won well.
“They are a polished side,’’ said BGS director of rugby Phil Mooney in praise of BBC.
“The Grammar boys certainly had their moments, but they have some really beautiful passers in their team who gives them really good width,’’ he said in reference to Mason Gordon and Taq Annan.
For Grammar hooker Will Hay was outstanding along with Campbell Watchirs who Mooney said produced “the effort you need at First XV level’’.
BBC’s best were prop Andrew Romano, flanker Zac Hough and fullback Taj Annan.
Round 2, August 15
TSS v TGS
Churchie v BGS
Nudgee College v IGS
BSHS v Terrace
Bye: BBC