After Round 3 there were only two unbeaten teams remaining.
Knox were undefeated but the other winning side was not one of the usual suspects.
Knox 57 — Trinity 7
On a glorious day at Summer Hill the unbeaten Trinty hosted Knox. Trinity’s oval is compact, and whilst not as imperially majestic as other places, offers comfortable and good viewing in elegant surrounds.
Though Trinity was well beaten in the 2nds and 3rds, those sides had shown sufficient heart and spirit to arouse home supporters. And neatly attired and with a joyful enthusiasm, the Trinity boys voiced their support with a choral blancmange of song as the lads in green ran out.
First half
The Trinity side matched up well to the Knox side, and they looked to have their share of physically imposing players. This was evident in the opening minutes as forwards ran onto short passes and enthusiastically wore their way towards the try line.
However Knox also had some strong forwards and the ball was won and quickly sent through the backline to 13 – Watson. He found a gap and fed the winger Price who ran 70 metres to score. It was almost surreal, minutes into the game the Trinity supporters were still in song almost unaware of the try.
The Trinity players seemed confused, wondering how their attack had been disrupted in such a manner. This disbelief was probably evident in the way they responded. Their opening style of play – hard running, short passing and support – seemed to work previously so why not give it another go?
And it worked, they got deep in attack and started battering the Knox defence. The Trinty prop McLennan picked up a good pass, went through a tackle and with a dogged determination crawled over from five metres out to score. The try was converted and Trinity was in the lead.
Trinity continued the same style of play and had most of the possession and territory in the opening quarter. In a similar vein to their opening try, with close physical running Trinity edged close again. The Knox defence wavered and the Trinity 8 Wayland went over the try line from close range with Knox defenders on him, beside him and under him.
Had he scored? The ref was uncertain, the Trinity supporters were certain, I had seen similar situations rewarded, but the touch judge was not as enthusiastic. No try.
The game changing moment? Perhaps, but with an attacking 5-metre scrum, with a scrum that had reputation, Trinity could still score. The non-try was a momentary setback, an aberration. And then Knox won a tight head and ran the ball – Williams made a good break deep in Trinity territory.
This time it was the Knox deep in attack and moments later they scored – Van Zyl. Trinity had their moment taken from them and the class of Knox started to tell.
Whereas the Knox defence could keep out Trinity, the same could not be said of Trinity. Knox had speed and their long passing isolated the Trinity defence. The opening flurry by Trinity also took more out of them than Knox as they started losing composure and intensity.
In the second quarter Knox took control and scored three more tries. Some were long distance and some were from short range. The backs and forwards were combining well and often left the Trinity defence at a loss. Whereas by this time Trinity’s attack was showing neither the variety nor potency to be threatening.
In the dying moments of the half Trinity lost two players. Their captain Corias was stretchered off with an injury and their try scorer McLennan apparently red carded. I am at a loss here as I saw neither the incident, nor the send-off.
Second Half
The second was a desultory affair. The ref became more involved and the game lost flow and momentum. Scrum resets were prevalent as were handling errors. There were some good tries scored (including a, by now traditional, Widders-Reece bullocking ‘get-out-of-my-way’ surge) and a nice try to Watson showing a great ability to create a gap.
By the end of the game the Trinity side looked well-beaten: Knox must be a very physical team. Though they tried hard, Trinity looked disheartened and exhausted; Knox quite the opposite. By the end of the game the only thing stopping their scoring were their own errors.
The Teams
Trinity started off well, but became brow beaten by more skilful and powerful side. They seemed to be missing something in attack. Their opening moments of the game were good, but I think Knox just weathered that storm and lifted when required.
Trinity had some good moments with the line-out but that dropped off as well. The injury and send-off cost them dearly.
Knox lifted from last week. Their discipline was much better and they defended well. They apply pressure, back each other and adjust to the game at hand.
The Players
For Trinity the fullback Barkley-Brown showed some spark in attack, but his chances were limited. Number 8 Wayland had a strong game and was unlucky not to have been awarded a try. I hope Corias’s injury is not serious.
For Knox, arguably no real standouts because it was a real team effort—though Widders-Reece must have enjoyed scoring his sixth try in the CAS competition this year.
The Scoring
Knox 58 ( J Widders-Leece 2, D Bindczus 2, J Williams, B Van Zyl, L Price, C Nicholas, C Watson tries: L Price 3 goal, L Bosch goal ) def Trinity 7 ( H McLennan try, R Longville goal )
