Live stream: Bass High face St Dominic’s College in crucial Peter Mulholland Cup showdown

‘All the boys dug deep and it shows in the result.’ Needing a win by 11 points to reach the Peter Mulholland Cup final eight, Bass High duly delivered in a tense affair with St Doms. Catch up on the REPLAY.

Bass High are through to their first Peter Mulholland Cup quarter-finals in years.

Needing to beat St Dominic’s College by 11 points to beat out St Gregory’s for progression out of the pool stage, Bass won 36-22 and kept St Dom’s winless in 2024.

Bass captain Ali Karnib said they were trying not to focus too much on the score throughout the game.

“We just kept saying ‘we’ve got to win, we’ve got to win,’” Karnib said.

“Don’t worry about chasing points, we’ve just got to keep going.

“We know what we’ve got, we know we’re gonna win, all the boys dug deep this week and it shows in the result.”

Bass only led by two points at the halftime break, but were leading by as much as 10, conceding some error-helped tries to St Doms.

But they picked it up in the second half, blowing the lead out by 24 points at one point.

St Doms closed again but Bass, just, had enough in hand.

“Throughout the game we knew all we had to do was win,” Karnib said.

“We know that we have to fix those one per centers now ahead of the next round. If we get those right, we can do anything.”

Nelson Lau was a stand out for Bass, scoring a hat-trick, but Karnib said it was truly a team effort.

“It’s a team sport,” he said.

“All the boys are great and they all dug deep for each other.

“If one of them doesn’t do well, the whole team goes down, so I’m glad for my boys.”

PREVIEW

Bass High won’t need to listen too hard in their mathematics class to figure out how they can advance to the finals of the Peter Mulholland Cup.

If they can take down St Dominics by 11 points or more on Thursday their season remains alive. Anything less and their year is over.

Catch the game from St Dominic’s College LIVE and EXCLUSIVE from 11am.

Check out the full NRL Schoolboys LIVE STREAM schedule below.

Bass’ task made tougher by the fact the fixture comes in the first week of school after holidays.

“We haven’t been around the team with school holidays and the U18s Championships,” said coach Jon Wilson.

“We’ll get together this week and get a few sessions in before the game.

“We’re just looking to win and hopefully those points will come with it. We can’t look at the scoreboard and put too much pressure on ourselves.

“St Dominics have been pretty strong against us over the last few years, so looking to get the win is the main thing.”

Simione Laiafi, Phoenix Godinet and Aaron Keppie return to the side from a successful ASSRL U18s campaign with NSWCHS, with Laiafi earning an incredible honour in the process.

NSW CHS forward Simione Laiafi in action at the ASSRL Nationals.

The highly regarded Manly Harold Matthews representative was chosen in the Australian Schoolboys side, and Wilson said the key trio will bring an additional confidence back with them when it’s time to hit the field.

“We had three boys up there and Simi made Australia, which was very cool for us,” he said.

“Those boys have played at the higher levels of junior reps. They’ll come back from those camps on a high and a positive note.

“I’m sure they’ll bring that positive experience back with them and lead the boys to get us around the field.”

While St Dominics is out of finals contention after dropping their first two games, Wilson is well aware of the challenge presented in a hostile environment.

“They gave it to us last year, so we’re looking forward to the challenge,” he said.

“Being their last home game, you know their seniors will be there to help create a really good atmosphere.

“We want to play in front of that.”

TEAMS

St Doms

1/ Jack Attard, 2/ Kees Muller, 3/ Cooper Henderson, 4/ Cruze Culshaw-Luke, 5/ Caine Johnstone, 6/ Cohen Benson, 7/ Liam Powderly, 8/ Henri Young, 10/ Mitchell Hayes, 11/ Cooper Hale, 12/ Ryan Goncalves, 13/ Coby Raven, 14/ Dominic Vella, 15/ Patrick Seymour, 16/ Hayden Finn, 17/ Jonah Sooalo-Taupau, 18/ Harrison Rich, 21/ Caleb Charlton

Bass High

1/ Ali Karnib, 2/ Nelson Lau, 3/ Wesley Papalii, 4/ Paul Henry Johnson, 5/ Jordan Vandermade, 6/ Elijah Tuifua, 7/ Matthew Barakat, 8/ Simione Laiafi, 9/ Aaron Keppie, 10/ Jerome Goddard, 11/ Itula Seve, 12/ Phoenix Godinet, 13/ Tyler Slate, 14/ Hasan Rabaa, 15/ Jerome Gargoles, 16/ Solomon Tupou, 17/ Caleb Ah Luo, 18/ Issaac Thompson, 19/ Josiah Fifita, 20/ Mason Finau