CAS Round 6 surprise

St. Aloysius 20 – Trinity 12

by “Another Anonymous”

The morning rain cleared as the first game of the CAS second round was to commence.

Trinity was looking on getting close to the Big Two on the competition table and Aloys wanted to reverse some of their first round results.

Aloys had Vevers and Wilkinson returning from injury whilst Trinity lost their star fullback Barkley-Brown which caused a late dramatic
reshuffle.

The boys ran through tunnels of about the same length as the home Summer Hill crowd was much smaller than previous years.

First half

Aloys looked committed from the start but were having trouble containing big second rowers King and Rasch. However after strong period of good ball retention and driving playing from Aloys forwards and backs – Winger Vlachos scored in the corner. Dainton nailed the kick from the sideline.

The Aloys boys were fired up but remained composed their execution much improved. After a strong run from their new loose head prop Wilkinson – livewire redheaded hooker Stene dived over in the corner.

Trinity did not take this lying down and after sustained pressure captain Corias scored with the conversion making the half time score 7-12.

Second half

Trinity needed a lot of magic water to get the team back on as they had a number of injuries and some seemed to playing on one leg. Trinity was gaining the upper hand and again after sustained pressure 13. Saofia seemingly ran through the whole Aloys team and plonked down under the posts. 12-12.

It was beginning to look like a re-run of the Aloys being run over in the last quarter again. However with flyhalf Dainton directing traffic and fullback Dunlop absorbing a lot of pressure from Trinity’s accurate kicking game, the supposed inevitable did not occur.

Breakaway Slaven scored after a long strong run and Aloys were ahead 17-12 with 15 minutes to go.

Trinity threw everything at Aloys and even though carrying injuries looked for a last gasp win. However with three minutes to go a penalty from 30 metres out and 15 metres wide was converted by Man of the Match – Dainton. The eight point buffer was there and the Aloys crowd celebrated!

The Players

Trinity

3 – 10. Ryan Longville – played at fullback officially but was all over the park.

2 – 4. RyanKing – although yellow carded did a mountain of work and always looked dangerous

1 – 2. Anthony Nyguyen – tried all day

Aloys

3 – 10.  James Dainton – did not miss a beat all day. caught and tackled everything.

2 – 7. Nick Slaven. In everything and scored a well deserved try.

1 – 8. Nick Cramp. Although not huge for a No 8 did everything and more than was required.

The Wrap-up

Trinity should be proud how they handled their injury woes and always looked dangerous. The injury toll was never mentioned as an excuse
by their team.

Aloys showed great composure and executed excellently under immense pressure. It was a great team effort. As other results from the weekend
showed their will be a lot more interesting games next term.

Good luck to the CAS teams this week!

The Scoring

St. Aloysius 20 ( E Stene, N Slaven H Vlachos tries; J Dainton con, pen ) def Trinity 12 ( G Corias, N Saofai try, R Longville con )

Other Results

1st XV

Cranbrook 21 ( C Banks, L McCombe tries; S Renton con, 3 pens ) def Barker 15 ( S Kirkby, S Campbell tries; D Balcombe con, pen )

According to “smokingjoe”who saw both Barker v. Cranbrook games this year:

Renton’s three penalties, including two from the sideline, were the difference in a dour struggle around the mud hole of the cricket pitch at Barker.

Barker was stronger with their halves pairing available again and they had some vigour in their forwards

Cranbrook looked pretty flat after hard fought win over Knox in the previous match and seemed to lack line speed in defence.

This game could have gone either way

2nd XV

Knox 47 def Waverley 7

Barker 26 def Cranbrook 0

Trinity 9 def St. Aloysius 7

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