Author: Lee Grant

There were six NSW Opens selection trials at Curagal Field in North Turramurra  yesterday with teams from Country, Combined Catholic Colleges plus two teams each from ISA, CHS, CAS and four from GPS. The main game was between GPS I and CHS I and it was a squeaker. GPS I  22 — CHS I 2o   by “Jasdec”  GPS were lucky to get away with a win against CHS First half GPS were quickly out of the blocks and 15 Bill Freeman scored in the corner after a few minutes of play. The GPS backline appeared to be…

The last day of the 2014 IRB Junior World Championships had a tense final between South Africa and England, a brave performance in the play-off for third place and an amazing comeback in the rankings match for fifth place. “Bardon” writes on the final, and the earlier third place play-off. Following that is a report on the Australia v France match held earlier in the day—then “Bardon” gives his overview of the 2014 tournament. South Africa v. England   by”Bardon” South Africa made the final on the back of two tough games against New Zealand and looked battle hardened.…

After a scratchy win in Melbourne against the real France test side the Wallabies will want to whitewash them 3-0 and get seven wins in a row before the scary part of the test season starts against the All Blacks and Springboks. The teams Australia has chosen a giant pack that will weigh-in at about 935 kgs—bigger than the France eight by about 85 kgs. But if the result in Paris in 2012 is any guide it won’t mean anything if they play small. With no mobile backrower in the reserves, and an agile lock omitted, it makes the Wallabies…

Willie le Roux shines in Durban Willie had a virtuoso performance in the first test against Wales when he helped to set up four of the five Springbok tries including one for himself. In his first one he ran between outside centre Jonathan Davies and winger Alex Cuthbert then chipped over fullback Ian Williams’ head for Bryan Habana to touch down just before the dead ball line. In the second, flanker Aaron Shingler was there instead of Davies and le Roux was able to smoke him.  Instead of kicking the ball to Habana to beat Williams and Cuthbert…

Waverley 12 – Knox 10 In the biggest upset of the season so far, the gutsy no frills Waverley team defeated odds-on favourites Knox in a nail biter. by “Anonymous Al” In a classic David and Goliath story; in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, the gutsy no frills Waverley team defeated the star studded Knox side in a nail biter. Knox had been billed as one of two supreme CAS rugby teams for the season, while minnows Waverley had been written off as being lucky to win a single game. But if Waverley had no chance of…

On semi-final day England played Ireland and South Africa played New Zealand to see who would progress to the final. But there were ratings games on also. Australia played Samoa in a virtual semi-final of the four teams finishing between fifth and ninth place to get a more favourable ranking for their country in the 2015 tournament. England 42 – Ireland 15 by “Bardon” Coming into this one England would have been confident having already handed Ireland a bit of a hiding in the U20 Six Nations this year. Given their pool draw and opening defeat against Six…

Scots and Riverview are the only unbeaten teams after Round Two with Scots being impressive in a big win against Kings. The other winner was Joeys who bounced back from their Round One loss with a good victory over Shore. Joeys 36 – Shore 19 by “The Spaceman” After both teams had been well-beaten in the first game of the season it was important for both of them to beat the other to get higher on the ladder. First half Joeys started things off with a try against the run of play in the second minute, with fly half Connor…

Australia had a convincing win over a mélange of a France team last Saturday but the second encounter in Melbourne will be a sterner test. In the first test  France coach Philippe Saint-André rested players who played in the Top 14 final the week before, but for a couple of reserve backs. This gave him a sneaky excuse to look at some second-string players and debutants, but he was not so obliging this time. The teams Australia Apart from replacing injured forwards and one reserve prop, Coach Ewen McKenzie chose the same match day 23. His new starting forwards are…

The Aussie Under 20 team put in a good effort in conditions not suited to them in Pukekohe and beat Italy Under 20s 29-3. Both teams had a dig in the wet conditions and helped by an excellent referee, Mr Vlad Iordachescu from Romania; they played as brightly as the conditions allowed. First half Australia were a guilty of playing too much rugby with a greasy ball which sometimes left the hands skew, and they also lost it in contact in promising situations. But at 15 mins 9. Angus Pulver darted forward between two fatties and when he was tackled…

Twelve tries in eleven test matches We can brag about Izzy but against Ireland last Saturday 22-year-old Manuel Montero scored his twelfth try in eleven test matches for Argentina. Ireland beat Argentina 29-17 in Resistencia in their first test match since the retirement of Brian O’Driscoll. That was one milestone and another was that it was the first time they had won a test in Argentina in four attempts. Argentina rested most of their best available players, for the Rugby Championship. They used only a few Pumas who played regularly in Europe and none of the big names started for…

The England Under 20s beat Australia 38-24 in Round Two of the Junior Rugby World Championships at QBE Stadium in Albany, and in denying them any bonus points made it unlikely that the Aussies would qualify for the semi finals. England did not look like world-beaters but they played two or three years older than the Aussies did and after a slow start took the lead and were never headed afterwards. First half Australia had a dream start after 8. Ross Haylett-Petty made a break after a sweet pass from 4. Tom Staniforth and galloped up near the England line.…

CAS beat CHS 28-19 at Horden Oval at the Cranbrook School in the first trial to select NSW Schools’ teams for the national championships starting on 30th June. The Combined Associated Schools First XV had six players selected from each of the two leading teams in the 2014 competition: Cranbrook and Knox, although a couple became unavailable. The Combined High School XVs included players from state schools from all over NSW. First half CAS started the scoring early when they broke out near their own line and 8. Nick Makas went on a charge before passing to 10. David Smerdon,…

France will appear to approach the first test with a shrug of the shoulders attitude and an unusual team, but there will a steely resolve behind the French mask of insouciance. None of Les Bleus will fear the Wallabies after they embarrassed them in 2012, in the scrums and elsewhere, to win 33-6 in Paris the last time they played. The Wallabies will target a 3-0 home series outcome as they had against Wales in 2012, but each test was a close-run thing and this series could be the same. The teams Wallabies The change in “ownership” of the selection…

The dominant Aussie scrum It was a thrill to watch an Australian team dominate at scrum time and against an Argentine side, at that. If you are thinking test matches: no, it does not apply. The domination happened in a Junior World Championship [JWC] match in Pukekohe. If we didn’t know it already, we could see the effect on a game of a good scrum; this time from the other side of the fence. This switch in fortunes resulted from a selection and training programme that was light-years ahead of what they did for past JWCs, and could not be…

Australian 36 — Argentina 17 Australia put their poor recent efforts in the Junior World Championships behind them when they had a convincing win over Argentina, who had beaten them in the last two years and had never lost to them. And they did it in an unexpected way: they dominated the first Argentine scrum and kept doing so throughout the game.  First half The turning point of the match was probably in the second minute when the Australian Under 20 team [the Juniors] pushed an Argentine [Argie] scrum back on a second shove and earned a penalty. This set…

Jonny Wilkinson got the retirement send-off that he was hoping for when he steered Toulon to victory over Castres 18-10 in the final of the Top 14 competition. They love him in France and as he was interviewed after the game they played “God Save The Queen” to honour one of England’s great sons. Toulon had topped the table in the regular season and got into the final by beating Racing Metro of Paris 16-6 in the semi-final, helped by a try by Matt Giteau. Castres, who had won the final against Toulon last year, finished sixth on the table…

The two heavy weights of competition finally met at Bellevue Hill. It promised to be a great game and a willing spectacle. And so it proved to be.   by “Elfster” So far in the competition both sides had shown that not only they are well coached and drilled, but both sides had the cattle to make use of it. Knox’s reputation was based around attack and flair. That of Cranbrook based on defence and precision. The Knox crowd was noticeably smaller. The weather Gods were yet favourable for a good game of Rugby, and the Cranbrook supporters were…

The NSW GPS competition started yesterday and three teams put down a marker than they were the ones to beat. 2013 Joint Champions Scots and Newington had emphatic wins and Riverview served notice that there was a new gun in town. Scots 57 — Joeys 7 Scots gave Joeys one of their worst drubbings for for a while when they put them away 53-7 at Bellevue Hill. When skies cleared after a wet Sydney morning Scots were better in every aspect of rugby play and toyed with the visitors who had few answers to their Viking-like raids. First half Scots…

The Australian Under 20 team beat an Australian Barbarians team 59-22 yesterday at Chatswood Oval to win four warm-up games out of four during their two camps in May. The Barbarians [The Baas] team included three Waratahs plus three players invited to train with them pre-season, plus another invited on the Argentina tour last year. The remainder were mostly seasoned senior club players, though the openside flanker was Jack McCalman, the 2013 Australian Schools captain, who compared favourably with his hard-nosed team mates and his Under 20 opponents. The Baas were expected to trouble the Australian Under 20s [the Juniors]…

Wallaby watch Ewen McKenzie would have been watching his Wallabies on the weekend but he wouldn’t have liked everything he saw. Players are victims of the form of their team, and no Aussie side has looked great in South Africa this year; but some of the performances of individual Brumbies were tepid at best in both Bloemfontein and Pretoria. Their best performer at Loftus was Henry Speight, but the natural successor to Digby Ioane is not eligible for the Wallabies yet. Leali’fano and To’omua won’t have much to put in their scrapbook after that game and nor will Kuridrani. White…