Dolphins Cup Round 1: Best players in TCC, St Brendan’s wins

St Brendan’s and The Cathedral College took the points in their opening games of the elite schoolboys rugby league competition. See who was key to their victories.

In what’s expected to be one of the tightest competitions yet, the 2025 Dolphins Cup has kicked off with two tries proving the difference in both of the opening games.

Defending champions St Brendan’s scored four tries to two in its 24-12 win over Shalom College, while The Cathedral College ran in five to Emmaus’s three in its 20-14 victory in Tuesday’s showdowns.

Among the highlights were a 16-point haul from St Brendan’s winger Noah Wright (two tries and four conversions) and a hat-trick from TCC centre Jake Coomber.

St Brendan's coach Scott Minto.

St Brendan’s coach Scott Minto said Shalom put up a spirited showing on their home turf.

“They’re a different beast at home. They came with the type of intent we spoke about during the week,” he said.

Watch the Cup/Challenge/Schoolgirls replays here

“This year’s side is one of the bigger and more mobile teams we’ve seen them roll out so they were a handful at times.

“We gave them far too much ball and defended long periods inside our half.

Fullback Kobe Oberhardt was one of St Brendan’s best.

“For the most part, we held up well, however we know there is heaps of improvement in us.”

Minto said the players who influenced the result were fullback Kobe Oberhardt who was dangerous with ball in hand, second rower Jake Murphy who was aggressive in his work and point-scoring whiz Wright.

Minto also praised the work of dummy half Cameron Da Forno. He played the whole game with Jay Marsh unavailable and the team’s back-up nine having to fill in in the halves for Lachlan Anderson, who was ruled out late in the first half.

The Cathedral College five-eighth Archie Lloyd.

TCC coach Tony Martin said he, too, would be looking for an improved performance from his players after they were also guilty of coughing up too much ball.

“There’ll be a lot of learnings taken out of that one,” he said of Tuesday’s contest.

Watch the Cup/Challenge/Schoolgirls replays here

“I’ve never seen a team win a game with less than 50 percent completions but we managed to do it.

“There were certainly some good parts, we’re a very good side, but we just didn’t see enough of them.

“We’ll look to right some of the wrongs from last night and get a better performance next week.”

The Cathedral College second rower Jake Armstrong (centre) prepares to land another tackle during a big game against Emmaus.

Martin was left singing the praises of second rower Jake Armstrong, who tackled like a trojan and did everything he could to minimise the impact of the team’s error rate.

He said five-eighth Archie Lloyd showed great vision and composure under pressure and played a lead hand in several good tries.

Martin said Alekisio Siale was really hard to handle and the more he got the ball, the more space he created for the team.

Originally published as Dolphins Cup Round 1: Best players in TCC, St Brendan’s wins