Here is an informal report of Baker v Trinity on the second half
by “rtd32”
Baker 25 — St. Aloysius 18
I attended the latter parts of the Trinity vs Barker match today to stumble upon what was quite an interesting, but somewhat mediocre, display of footy from both sides.
I managed to catch Barker’s star player – Nick Burkett – red carded! That’s correct.
At the beginning of the 2nd half, score 18-12 to Trinity and the Barker vice-captain was red carded for collapsing a mall (having apparently already received a yellow card prior). I nearly left at that moment because I didn’t want to witness the massacre that would follow.
Fortunately, I stayed and, fortunately, the massacre never came. A huddle ensued from the next break in play when the Barker no.7, Tim Pearson (I believe), was injured. This fired up the Barker players and they looked frenzied, though some of the language was fruity.
However, it was this sort of attitude and passion that Barker have been lacking up until this point in the season. It was from about 100 metres away that I heard the hooker, say, amongst other things: “How much do we want it?”.
“Good”, I thought to myself, now we’ll have a game on our hands as I saw the shift in body language from the rest of the forwards.
From this point onward the Barker forward pack more than made up for their loss of the no.6. They began to break the advantage line against a bigger pack. They were far more aggressive in all aspects of their game (more so than I’ve seen from them this year), securing their own ball well, and structured and sound in defence.
Sean Campbell was making a few good runs, with Dave Balcomb (the inside centre) proving his worth also. However, the try came off a scrum near the Trinity 22, when Smerdon decided to take on the line himself, breaking through the defensive line untouched and then crashing over the try line after a good attempt from the Trinity fullback to stop him. David Balcomb converted from near in to the sideline: 19-18.
The Barker forwards did not take the foot off the pedal. There was a fair amount of scrappy play, but both sides had moments of brilliance.
The Trinity 14 showed a great turn of speed and had beat his opposite number on the outside a few times. Both props from Trinity impressed me also, as they always managed to beat the advantage line. However, Barker’s forwards clearly wanted it too much.
Kirkby had a solid game also, but I’d like to see him take on the line a bit more.
Barker kicked two extra penalties from pretty far out to get up to 25-18 and that was the final scoreline.
The wrap-up
I think both these teams could potentially cause an upset to one of the top 2 sides. I liked Trinity’s forwards but I couldn’t help but feel the backline was a bit flat in attack and the Trinity number 9, whilst exhibiting a very slick pass, missed a few golden opportunities simply because he went the wrong way (this may have been the fault of lack of communication from his 10, regardless, it happened too often).
Barker backs were sound. I liked Kirkby’s box kick, and Smerdon’s passing and running game was good as always. Joel Koppe, the Barker winger, is a good player and I wouldn’t exclude him from representative honours. I feel if their forward pack manages that level of intensity throughout a whole game against Cranbrook or Knox then there will be a seriously close contest.
