U13A V’s De La Salle Round 11

Won 24-16

This was another top team performance.  We went into this game with only 13 "A" grade players and one was injured in the warm-up so we had Josh Paton come up from the 13B's after playing a full game and he played the whole game for us and was very solid. We therefore played without any replacements although other 13 B players were kindly on standby if anyone was badly injured.

Liam Rae had a blinder taking numerous hitups and making heaps of tackles and he was duly rewarded with Man of the Match.

Josh Ridge and James "the Hitman" Wayland scored all our tries, 2 each and were as usual vital contributors to us winning the game.

As I said up front it was a great team performance and other players that excelled on the day were Keiran Levin who played well in the dummy half role, Joel Collier who had a great game in defence in the centre position, Buddy Longville who marked their good five-eight and kept him quiet and Zac Hunter who had his usual non-stop game in the backrow in both attack and defence.

Well-done to all of you for such a great effort, to keep in the grind when we were behind early and having to hang on up the hill at the Zac when you were tired.

Scorers: Tries: Josh Ridge 2, James Wayland 2

Goals: Ryan "Buddy" Longville 4/4

A-Grade V’s Como Round 10

Lost – 20-18

We experienced a disappointing loss today as it was a game we really should have won on our home turf. We last played Como back in round one where we won 48-12 but there was no mistaking that Como had turned up today to reverse this outcome by playing a very physical game and basically just throwing everything at us and in-particular our younger players. We on the other hand went into the game with a few last minute changes when both Pat Carr and Michael Morris had to sit out due to injuries and to top it off we didn’t have the services of our Big Man Nathan Bullock. Big thanks to Chris Isaac, Logan McGlinchy and Viliam Napa’a who hung around when our A-Reserves side folded and resulting in all three guys getting a run today filling in for the above usual starting players.

 Como pretty much controlled the first half seeing them go to the break 12-0 up. We had our chances but just failed to deliver and constantly seemed to find ourselves on the wrong end of the penalty calls. With Como now sniffing a victory, the last thing we needed was for them to get the early points in the second half but unfortunately this is what happened and we soon found ourselves having to chase down an 18-0 lead against a side that was hell bent on just bashing our guys out of the game. In true Engadine fashion though our side was up to the challenge and through the leadership of blokes like Scott Nancarrow, Aaron Bruce and Chris Woods to name a few, went about returning the favour to Como and in the process lifting the confidence in our side that we can still win this and boy did we come close to it when around 15 minutes to go in the game, Aaron Bruce got proceedings under way with a nice single effort try. This was soon followed up with a try to Kain Ebb and with Chad Richmond in with his boot a scoreline of 18-12 and 5 minutes on the clock. Unfortunately though at this point Como were awarded a very dubious penalty right in front of the post and seeing them convert to take the score to 20-12. With our heads still held high we soon had Como going backwoods resulting in Matt Stubbs picking up our next 4 points and with the conversion taking the score to 20-18. Needless to say Como was in no hurry to restart the game and when they did we were down to just under two minutes in the game. We got down to Como’s line but....well the score should tell the story.

 A lot can be said about this loss that we should have done this or that, but for my mind I’m proud of each and every player that went out on the Paddock today as this was a physical game that I’m sure the spectators would have walked away from fully entertained. We have a young team this year and these guys just never gave up and I’m positive they will be all the more experienced as a result of this game. 

Lastly, we held our Sportsman’s lunch last Friday and a Huge Thanks must go Grahame Wagener who worked tirelessly ensuring that this went off without a problem and that everyone enjoyed themselves. Big Thanks also to everyone that supported the afternoon and to you gents who I met for the first time, it was a pleasure meeting you and I hope you keep on enjoying these reports.

Tries:

X1  Aaron Bruce sponsored by Engadine Heathcote Landscape and Building supplies

X1  Matt Stubbs sponsored by Century 21 Exclusive Realty

X1  Kain Ebb sponsored by Kingsgrove Motor Body Repairs

Goals:

X3 Chad Richmond sponsored Tippers Cup Cakes

Field Goal:

Awards in no particular order went as follows: Andrew Johnston, Paul Smith, Chris Wood, Kain Ebb, Aaron Bruce.