Under 14 rugby report – May 16, 2015

Under 14 v Melbourne Grammar

Last week the team played a great game except for three minutes where exceptional pressure was not converted into points and would ultimately cost St Pats the win. – This week’s assignment was always going to be a tough one as MGS are a proud rugby school. – Last year the St Pats boys were defeated by over 40 points so the margin today would a good measure of how far the team has progressed.

Two good players would miss this week in Cooper Craig -“ Peters and Jaiden White. – Cooper was selected to play interleague footy and his evasive skill and tackling would be sorely missed. – Jaiden was serving a Saturday detention and his strong run on the wing would also be a notable omission.

The bus ride down allowed the players to meet one on one with Mr McKee and each player was given a wrist band with two things to focus on. – One of those things was the commitment – required to our defensive structure and the other was a personal message from the coach on each players KPI for the game. – In short the backs were asked to create width for each other in attack and forwards were asked to -Hit the ruck-.

The game started well for the SPC boys scoring a try early through Sean Antrobus and another to Tarquin Schreenan before Melbourne Grammar hit back with a try of their own after a lapse in concentration from the Ballarat boys. – It was very pleasing to see captain Henry Squire talking to his team, pointing to his wristband and asking for more commitment to the promise each squad member made in playing his role in defence. –

The halftime address focussed on the need to eliminate mistakes made in our first two rounds. – Against Xavier the communication was non-existent in the second half and players became focussed on their own score line instead of the team’s success and against St Kevins it improved but 3 minutes of ill-discipline would cost us the result.

The St Pats boys came out breathing fire, Antrobus scored again after some exceptional work from the tight five who hit rucks hard and turned the ball over again and again and kept St Pats in possession and in scoring position. – Tarquin Schreenan would score a nice try running the ball from number 8 on a set play called -T ball Stevie-, caught MGS completely by surprise.

Sensing the game was slipping away MGS lifted their aggression and strung together some nice phases to score under the posts. – The visitors were not done yet however and with Dalton, Schreenan and Hammond creating havoc at the breakdown MGS coughed the ball up at restart and SPC went forward again, the forwards were immense in the amount of work they were doing and it was creating plenty of space for the backs to work in. – The final score of the came after Jake Dalton crashed over the line following a penalty in the red zone.

Final Score:St Pats 27 def Melbourne Grammar 10

– Best -“ Dalton, Antrobus, Hammond, Leahy, Squire, Schreenan

Tries -“ Antrobus (2), Schreenan (2), Dalton

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