On Saturday, there was only one place to be if you were a disinterested rugby follower with an eye on the Associated Schools competition. Unbeaten, top-of-the-table Barker was at home to its last plausible challenger, Waverley: a classic battle between a disciplined forward pack and a dangerous backline.
But rugby supporters, even when we’re objective, aren’t disinterested. We don’t look at fixture lists and ask, what’s the best game on this afternoon? We go to watch people run around who wear the same socks we used to wear. How else to explain all those hours I spent on the sidelines at University Oval in the 1990s when, truly, the Students couldn’t beat an egg? So no, I didn’t make the trek to Hornsby on Saturday. I was at Summer Hill to see Trinity play Cranbrook.
Before kick-off, this one was too close to call. Cranbrook was pretty much at full strength. Trinity had taken a horrible mauling from Knox the previous week, and was without its two most dangerous running forwards, Cameron Orr (broken hand) and Malaki Tiumalu-Afele (shoulder). Scrum-half Brent Whicker was out too, I think with a damaged shoulder. So the pack reshuffled, with a new back row (George Corias, Ola Moala and Rory Hurst were all missing against Knox) named, while Andrew Cho was promoted from the Seconds to replace Whicker.
The first ten minutes were fairly even, but Trinity managed to string together some phases in the Cranbrook quarter and prop Jackson McLean, who ran aggressively all day, burrowed over: 5-0. Mostly the early stages were slugged out in the forwards, and the two packs made an interesting contrast.
Cranbrook had the height, with Cameron Mee, Sam Zachariah and Tom Fay. Trinity had heft, mostly through McLean, Satiu and Moala. Cranbrook had quite a lot of possession early on but the Trinity defence was committed and well organised and the Cranbrook backs couldn’t find a way through.
Scrum-half Dylan Swanborough missed a very kickable penalty that would have made the score 5-3. And then the game broke open on the first of three freakish Clunies-Ross moments. Jamieson Clark decided to run the ball from inside the Trinity quarter and sent a long pass to his captain and full-back, Henry Clunies-Ross. Both Cranbrook centres and a winger converged on Clunies-Ross and held him. But no-one went for his legs, which just kept driving, and one by one the tacklers fell off.
Clunies-Ross then set off on a long, jinking run, the purpose of which seemed to be to give every Cranbrook player at least one chance of tackling him. Inside the Cranbrook quarter he sent the ball wide and although Rowland Kotobalavu was tackled, Trinity won a (rare) penalty a couple of phases later. Junior Satiu rumbled ahead from the tap, then Moala burst onto a short ball from Clark and crashed over near the posts. Clark’s conversion made it 12-0. Ola was back in the action from the kick-off, bursting through the defence. Clark backed up astutely, and ran the last fifty metres without being touched. 19-0.
I know I go on about Clunies-Ross, but really good players not only do the simple things well, but make difficult things look simple. Trinity was in possession, but going nowhere much, and a dreadful pass was tossed in the general direction of his ankles. The fullback, barely breaking stride, caught the ball by trapping it one-handed against his shin, regained his balance, chipped ahead and tackled the Cranbrook player who gathered the ball. One moment of skill, balance and composure and his team was on the attack again.
At this point it became clear that there was a serious problem with the Cranbrook defence: once the first line was breached, there was too little cover. That point was emphasised right at the start of the second half, when Clark made another break and chipped ahead. Jonathan Pack, an underrated winger, waited for the right bounce before dropping onto the ball to score.
At which point everything went pear-shaped. When Clark went to regather the ball for the conversion, either someone said something to him or he said something to someone. It was hard to see who started it, though Clark does have an almost Tom Carterish ability to niggle his opponents. Anyway, something that was said offended someone, and soon Clark was surrounded by most of the Cranbrook team, after which most of the Trinity team joined in.
There were more pushes and shoves than punches, but when the teams were eventually separated the referee had a lengthy chat with the assistant referees and red-carded Cranbrook outside centre Maui Moody and Clark. Presumably the referee thought that Clark was the instigator, since play recommenced with a penalty to Cranbrook on half-way.
Cranbrook got the better deal from the send-offs, since Moody had been inconspicuous and Clark was really on song, threatening to cut loose. It was 24-0, but Cranbrook was reinvigorated, had a steady flow of penalties and set up camp in Trinity’s quarter.
And then Clunies-Ross did something I still can’t quite believe. One of the Cranbrook forwards made a charge for the line. Clunies-Ross sized him up and sprinted towards him at pace. For a moment I thought that he was shoulder-charging, because his arms weren’t out for the tackle. But in fact he was going for the ball.
The runner braced himself for a tackle that never came, and relaxed his grip on the ball, which Clunies-Ross simply wrenched away; and finding open country in front of him, he then ran 90 metres to score. The incredible part of it was the speed of thought — to have seen that opportunity and execute it in split seconds was astonishing. Clunies-Ross converted his own try: 31-0. Almost from the restart, Pack made a break, then found Hurst (who had an outstanding game), and hooker Geoff Coffill finished off a good team try: 38-0.
Trinity’s lineout began to function quite smoothly, news that will cause me to cast a cautious glance towards the West tomorrow morning in case the sun should decide to rise there. Despite the genius of Clunies-Ross, you’d have to say the player of the match was Moala, whose defence was brutal and who caused havoc every time he ran.
Cranbrook still had quite a bit of ball, but there was just no penetration in the backs, except for a piece of individual brilliance from fullback Oliver Maxwell, who regathered his own chip kick down the left wing. Weight of possession eventually told, with lock Zachariah popping a short ball to his second row partner Mee, who scored by the posts. 38-7.
Clunies-Ross went off around this point, and then play began to get messy. In one gruesome sequence, Zachary Harb and Moala both crunched an unfortunate Cranbrook runner, but cracked their own heads together in the process. Harb was taken off looking as though he had been hit by a truck. Moala got up and played on.
I just report this: draw your own conclusions. While Harb and Moala were both still on the ground, Kotobalavu poleaxed the next ball-runner and was given his second yellow card for a shoulder charge in as many weeks. Sometimes consistency can be overrated as a virtue. Cranbrook had more territory and possession, but scored only once in the ten minutes when they had an extra man, with flanker Hugh Summerhayes going over near the corner.
Trinity had one last attacking movement in them: Cho collected a messy tap down from a lineout and ran backwards looking for a runner. He found Hurst, who ran straight ahead, found no one in front of him, and scored from about 45 metres. Finn, on for Clunies-Ross, converted for a final score of 45-12.
At times Trinity played with real flair and cohesion. But this was the day the Plume Shield slipped from its grasp. The epic 22-22 draw between Barker and Waverely means that, in theory, Barker and Waverley can finish joint premiers, but Trinity is out of the reckoning. Clark will almost certainly serve a one-week suspension, which will place a real dent in Trinity’s chance of upsetting Barker next week.
Elsewhere, St Aloysius won strongly over Knox, completing a rare double success over the Warrawee team. Trinity has beaten St Aloysius, twice, pretty easily; Knox hammered Trinity twice; St Aloysius beat Knox twice. Go figure.
On the whole, this was a bleak day for Cranbrook. Tom Fay is an impressive loose forward, athletic and determined, although he will need to bulk up a little for senior football. Mee does well in the lineout and gets around the park will but will need to run with lower body height to do more damage as a ball-carrier. Maxwell showed some nice touches but sometimes his positional play in defence was a worry. Swanborough has a good pass but didn’t seem to have much appetite for running. There wasn’t a lot else on show.
Since the Plume Shield became an official competition in 1989, Cranbrook has won it once (in 1994) and St Aloysius never. The increased professionalism in preparation has made things very hard for the smaller schools. And the imbalance has increased since the introduction of the ten-round competition, which demands that teams have depth. St Aloysius has been more competitive overall than Cranbrook this year, but in the junior teams it’s weaker, fielding only two sides in some age divisions.
I admire the way St Aloysius and Cranbrook turn out competitive First XVs who always take pride in their jerseys, but sooner or later, the big school/small school divide will require some careful attention.
So, where does that leave us? Two rounds to go. If Barker loses twice and Waverley wins twice, the premiership is shared. If Barker wins at Trinity on Saturday, they claim the title outright. It should be quite a game, especially if Trinity can get a few of its walking wounded back onto the field.
