Knox v. Trinity
by “Tah Men”
Everyone I spoke to before the game thought it was going to be a whitewash—even the Trinity supporters.
People were predicting scores of 40+ to nil. They had reason to—the Knox machine had thumped Waverley 41-0 last week in Round 2, and Waverley had thrashed Trinity 31-0 in Round 1.
The conditions were great for a game of rugby: there was little breeze and the temperature had a cool edge to it. Lining up against each other I was surprised with the size of the Trinity team, they weren’t as big as the Knox side, but they weren’t far off either.
A couple of changes had been made to the Knox team due to the injury of Stenning and Armstrong, with Ingram and Woodcock (Yr.10) replacing them.
And so the game began.
First Half
Right after the kick-off Trinity was unable to recover their own ball and Knox’s big, fit forwards turned it over.
Knox kicked to the corner after Trinity infringed. As they faced up in the lineout it was hard not to notice the height and size of Rasch. Knox drove a the resulting maul over the line and Grindal scored for them to lead 7-0 after the extras.
I was sitting in the crowd and at this point (about five minutes in) I started to hear murmurs of “Here we go again” and “Another Knox slaughter”, but from the restart Trinity fought back. They looked dangerous in the back line with fullback Longville being elusive.
Trinity was running hard and continually at the Knox line and surprisingly it would be a picture that was seen throughout the game—Trinity looking dangerous throwing themselves at the white wall of the strong Knox defence.
A big bear hug from a Knox player held up a try, but Trinity were persistent and scored from a maul. The conversion missed and Knox still led, but by 7-5 only.
The game looked to be on equal footing and the murmurs of a whitewash died down.
In hindsight a critical moment in the game came when Trinity 13 Tuitavake got a yellow card —because Cutrone scored for Knox from a maul try after the infringement. Knox then led 12-5.
Three maul tries out of three by Aussie schoolboys; who would have thought?
When Chapman turned the ball over for Trinity a big kick from Knox gave them an opportunity. Ingram scored after Knox had numbers down the side of the field to increase the Knox lead to a more comfortable 17-5.
But after a sloppy kick-off, Trinity recovered the ball and put enough pressure on Knox to squeeze out a penalty after some solid attack.
Half-time score: Knox 17 – Trinity 8.
Second half
There was no scoring after oranges but the game had a different tone compared to the first half.
Knox had been almost unstoppable after the break in the first two rounds but they seemed to lose their attacking edge in this game and didn’t get the opportunities they normally get in the second half.
Trinity looked threatening throughout and if they were against any other team than Knox they would have scored a couple—and even against Knox they had two tries held up.
Tough rugby was played out in the field: nothing fancy but tough.
Final score: Knox 17 – Trinity 8.
The players
Knox – Their #7 and skipper, Chapman, turned over at least two balls but forced about the same number of penalties from Trinity. #12 Williams was a beast in defence and made metres with most of his touches with the ball.
Trinity – I enjoyed the dangerous runner #15 Longville and the same could be said of #14 Payne who has some pace – and #12 Morris, a powerful player.
The Wrap-up
It was an odd game. The predictions indicated that the final score would be a “best-case scenario” for Trinity, but once they were out on the field they would have been disappointed not to walk away with another try. However, a win would have stretched expectations because of their key errors and the yellow card.
Although Knox’s defense was too strong, they lacked the killing edge they normally have when Stenning and Armstrong are available.
Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com – except J. Williams (Lee Grant).
See next page for Cranbrook v Waverley
