The "gen blue" summary has quoted their coach, also Tim Rapp, it looks like he has also got that coaching gig as well, he may have left his school job?
Yeah—Rappy is coaching both but everything will be over for both the NSW Colts and the Gen Blue team by the end of March, or near enough; so it won't interfere too much with his Newington stuff.
Does someone want to convince me of the benefit of that sort of trial, a short game (40mins) vs far superior opposition??
I don't want to convince you of anything tc, but it's probably the wrong question.
The right question may be:
—Did the guys get anything out of it?
or
—Did the NSW Colts selectors get a good idea of who could stand up to opponents who were hardened players?
—And a follow-up question: are not such players the players you want to represent NSW Colts in the national Under 20s tournament next month, and some to go through to represent our country in NZ later this year with other young hard-heads from elsewhwere?
The 1st half team went down 20-12 to a team that had seven internationals in it. They would have learned a hell of a lot in that 40 minutes. Most of the Aussies were Colts last year and some were at school.
You'd have to ask them if they thought it was worthwhile. Geez playing against Cubelli who started against the Wallabies in Perth last year—what an experience.
You wouldn't want Under 20s to play a whole game against seasoned men though.
The second half team, which will likely end up with not a lot of players in the final NSW Colts' squad, did it tough, though the idea was that they would play against all the non-test players with the Pumas acting as reserves.
However most, if not all, of the Pumas ran back on after oranges, at least for a while. The weird thing was: the scoreline deteriorated after the test players were replaced.
Did the 2nd half team get anything out of it since the score against them was 37-0 (I think).
You'd have to ask them.
One thing I am fairly sure about though: they would have rather have had the opportunity to show what they could do against far stronger opponents, than not.
.