Did anyone else get out to watch this game.any match reports from other games in the pool?[/quote]
I was out watching the Townsville Boys play Brisbane Purple at Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday. The Townsville boys had a full weekend of Rugby with games on Friday Night, Saturday Afternoon and lunchtime on Sunday.
The U/15's Townsville Boys had a tough 2nd day on Saturday with purple showing that they were a well drilled unit. With very strong running forwards and creative backs, purple dominated in every position and constantly denied Townsville space to create or time to setup plays. Purples support play and running from all their players was a highlight Townsville 0 Brisbane Purple 59.
The U/17's game was a different story. Townsville came out full of running and their backs were constantly forcing Purple backwards. Townsville scored first (out wide) in a well constructed draw and pass play through their backs 5-0. Townsville continued to attack and force purple backward until a cut-out pass was brilliantly intercepted by one of purple centres and he scored, untouched, (after running 70m) under the posts 5-7. Townsville from the restart again attacked and after a few fazes put a kick across the ground to the winger. The winger, at full pace, under pressure and on the half volley (only centre metres off the ground) scooped the ball up with his right hand, ran 20m and scored in the corner. This had the whole crowd clapping and cheering with the amount of skill shown 10-7. This seemed to awaken purple forwards who started to find some go forward. Just before half time, purple again scored through some excellent lead up work and some tiring defence from Townsville 10-14.
Brisbane made six changes just after half time and this really seem to lift Purple and affect Townsville. The No 6 and No 8 from Purple were everywhere and when they weren’t putting on crushing tackles, they were hitting the ball up and making 10-20m on each run. Townsville were a different team in the second half and seemed to tire and loose a bit of structure. Brisbane on the other hand became very confident and started taking easy yards up the middle of the pitch and eventually scored 3 converted tries. Townsville tried hard for the whole of the second half, but only challenging Purples try line on a few occasions.
Final Score Townsville 10 – Brisbane Purple 35
Unfortunately, the score doesn’t show how close the game was. Townsville had to travel and play the night before in Toowoomba and then travel back to Brisbane (4hrs round trip). It was a high skilled game and played well within the spirit of the game