Trinity 25 — St. Aloysius 8
by “oldandslow”
Trinity had a comfortable 25-8 win over Aloys today (three tries to one), and will be well pleased with another significant step forward in terms of improved performance across the park.
With Aloys smashing TGS in the 16s and 2nd XV, the Aloys contingent, including a vocal group of old boys, were in full voice.
However, Trinity turned out their most composed performance of 2014 and were never really troubled.
First half
Dominance in the line out, scrum and maul gave Trinity plenty of possession and their first half try was a forward effort, rumbled over after several bullocking charges at the line. I think it was Wayland (8) who came up last at the end of it, but stand to be corrected as it was scored in the far corner.
Despite a dominant first half performance Trinity would have been slightly nervous going in to half time only 8-3 up. They should have scored one or two more tries with the possession they had.
Credit to Aloys on tenacious defence at times, but the power advantage of the Trinity pack was evident. Aloys were occasionally holding on by slowing down ruck ball illegally, and the penalty count started to swing heavily against them.
Second half
In the second half Trinity scored early through some nice backline play to put Barkley-Brown (15) away out wide, and he had too much pace for the chasing Aloys back, trotting through to score under the posts. Although Aloys tried hard, they had difficulty containing the strong running Saofia (13) all afternoon. Had more running metres in the game than any other player from either side..
The Trinity pack was effective at rumbling the ball forward. The front row (McLennan, Nguyen and Cooke) were strong, as was the number 6 (Corias). Filipo (5) was utterly in control of the lineouts, an effective possession winner from kick offs and generally had another strong game. Corias also lead his team around the field well, tackled strongly, ran strongly and had a great captain’s game.
There was a bit of handbag throwing in the second half and some long delays while the ref sorted it out. Nothing really in it, but all a bit unedifying.
Shortly after play resumed Aloys’ scrum half, Alex Feltham, scored a runaway try. An Aloys’ scrum close to the touch line was being pushed backwards and wheeled. Feltham showed enterprise, pace and twinkling toes as he scooted down the sideline. He flirted with touch in a 35m dash that was rewarded by a try in the corner. Well done young man.
Not long later though the Trinity were back on attack and the number 8, Wayland, was too powerful close to the line and brushed off a couple of would-be tacklers to break cleanly through the line and score next to the posts.
The teams
Aloys were plucky, and the outside backs looked dangerous at times, in particular Vevers (13), however, rugby games are won in the forwards and Aloys looked a bit light on up front, both in general play and in the set pieces. They’ll need to find a way to address that as the season progresses.
For Trinity, most of the side had a strong game. I assume the 13 from last week was injured, as Saofia moved from 12 to 13 (and had a better game). Longville moved from 11 to 12, where he acquitted himself very well, including with his goal kicking. He looks unusually assured in the inside backs for a Year 10 boy.
All in all, Trinity looked to have taken a deep breath and played much more controlled football. Although perhaps less exciting, and lacking a little in penetration other than through Saofia at 13, they looked to be playing at 85%, less on edge, and the handling and ball control was improved.
There were still some errors that have the potential to lose them games though, such as repeating last week’s problem by failing on two occasions to find touch from penalties. Saofia also looks a tad slow in defence at 13 and fast backlines may be able to exploit that. That said, Trinity’s defence was vastly improved from the Waverley game. Aloys lacked penetration at time, but you can only tackle what’s in front of you.
The Wrap-up
The Knox / Waverley result was interesting, and I’ll be keen to see a report on where Waverley was able to unlock Knox’s defence. One would think that Trinity will need to improve all parts of their game to give Knox a run next week, but they’ll take heart from the excellent defence against Aloys and the continuing improvement in their game from week to week; this is now a very different looking team to the one that played Stannies in a trial only a few games ago.
If they can defend well, play with a little more discipline (fewer penalties conceded), make fewer mistakes and play at the right end of the park, then hosting Knox next week might be a much more interesting game than any of us would have predicted on pre-season form.
.
