ARU Junior Gold Cup - National Junior Championships

[Top Cat]

In the under 17's Western NSW should be congratulated for such a performance against a team that in all probability will win Pool A. However, the Sydney Harbour North v Victoria game should be a very close contest and will ultimately determine who wins the Pool.

Sydney North West are my favourites for Pool B.

It is unfortunate but once a team has lost a game they effectively have little chance of making the semi finals.

 

[knock on]

Amazing...two rounds and you're already calling the winners of pool a and b! What's more north west have played only one game!!! Who's your tip for the Melbourne cup?

 

[therugbylyfe]

Did anyone else get out to watch this game.any match reports from other games in the pool?

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[/quote]





The cut out pass that was thrown was intercepted by the purple 15, who positioned himself brilliantly in the lead up to it. I believe the purple 15 is Tyson Williams?? anyone heard of this up and comer?

 

[Top Cat]

Knock on, when you film and watch hours and hours of video of various championships you get to see teams strengths and weaknesses, and similarly with individual players. I had actually called who I believe will be the Pool A and B winners to another poster before the comp even started. My apologies if your team isn't in my selections but then again neither was my son's team.

My tip is not to bet on the Melbourne Cup. Twenty-four runners and a handicap race!!!!!! The odds are against you.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Amazing.two rounds and you're already calling the winners of pool a and b! What's more north west have played only one game!!! Who's your tip for the Melbourne cup?

Given your ffr logo I can only assume you don't follow the Tahs thread: the Tahs are usually being tipped to win their pool before pre-season training.

 

[Shane Smeltz]

Knock on, when you film and watch hours and hours of video of various championships you get to see teams strengths and weaknesses, and similarly with individual players. I had actually called who I believe will be the Pool A and B winners to another poster before the comp even started. My apologies if your team isn't in my selections but then again neither was my son's team.

My tip is not to bet on the Melbourne Cup. Twenty-four runners and a handicap race!!!!!! The odds are against you.

What do you reckon about the 15s TC?
ACT are looking pretty strong. Dammit.
North Harbour look ok.

 

[Gary Owen III]

What do you reckon about the 15s TC?
ACT are looking pretty strong. Dammit.
North Harbour look ok.

In the 15's I reckon the Southern conference semi will be Western Sydney vs Sydney South Harbour.

ACT's big win was against South Australia so very hard to gain context. SSH play the ACT on Sunday so that will in my eyes determine the winner of their pool.

 

[Top Cat]

Sorry Shane but I don't follow the U15's as they are in a different age group to my sons so they were at different venues during last years various championships.

You can't read anything from the ACT 90-0 score unless you were there. By about 25-0 the opposition generally drop their heads and do not play anywhere near to their potential. It takes a very special coach to get them to lift for the second half. Have seen many a team rack up big scores against an opposition only for themselves to fall when they play another team that stick to the basics and have good structure.

In saying that though, as U14's the ACT had a great State Championship last year.

Now where is Tom Waterhouse when you want him

 

[Gary Owen III]

Sorry Shane but I don't follow the U15's as they are in a different age group to my sons so they were at different venues during last years various championships.

You can't read anything from the ACT 90-0 score unless you were there. By about 25-0 the opposition generally drop their heads and do not play anywhere near to their potential. It takes a very special coach to get them to lift for the second half. Have seen many a team rack up big scores against an opposition only for themselves to fall when they play another team that stick to the basics and have good structure.

In saying that though, as U14's the ACT had a great State Championship last year.

Now where is Tom Waterhouse when you want him

Shane my thoughts are based on the following

In the 15's the South Harbour team is made up of a lot of the Randwick team that was in the finals of the U14 State Champs and the Western Sydney team has a lot of the Norths team that won the State Champs.

 

[Shane Smeltz]

Ok, makes sense, thanks GO and TC.

South Harbour looks like a strong team. They will give ACT a challenge this weekend.

Western Sydney only exception might be that a couple of highly skilled boys from that Norths team that won the State Champs, are not on the list for Western Sydney - I believe those boys might be doing Harold Mats (U16s, Harold Mats is no cost for these boys) and I heard one is on the national touch football team. Not sure how factual that is though.

ACT U13s won the State Champs in 2012 but last year were knocked out by Randwick and Norths (although ACT did make the semis) is my recollection but I could be wrong. I watched the GF of the U14s State Champs and Randwick were good but Norths were better on the day. They had a couple more special players than Randwick had.

And TC agree about the 17s Pool B - North Western Sydney have a couple of special players on the team, one especially, his name is not on the JuniorgoldSydney website list, he joined after. He will make a difference to all their games.
Except of course the ones he has sit out of when it his turn. They all have to have a turn, apparently.

 

[fireball]

I wouldn't be too hasty to write off south harbour 17s on pool B. They have some strong forwards with a bit of mongrel and a very even back line one player who I'd put good money on as the quickest going around. I reckon they'd love all this talk about north west having it sewn up...nothing better than an upset.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I wouldn't be too hasty to write off south harbour 17s on pool B. They have some strong forwards with a bit of mongrel and a very even back line one player who I'd put good money on as the quickest going around. I reckon they'd love all this talk about north west having it sewn up.nothing better than an upset.

did he touch the ball in their 1 game?

 

[Top Cat]

I wouldn't be too hasty to write off south harbour 17s on pool B. They have some strong forwards with a bit of mongrel and a very even back line one player who I'd put good money on as the quickest going around. I reckon they'd love all this talk about north west having it sewn up. nothing better than an upset.

Fireball, I see Sydney South Harbour U17's beat Northern Inland in Sydney 31-3

Hunter beat Northern Inland at Armidale 45-12

Sydney North West beat Hunter at Eastwood 36-12

On paper SSH need a 26 point improvement to beat Sydney North West and if they did then I would be the first to congratulate them.

I might add that we also have some strong forwards with a bit of mongrel. Full stop! But it isn't about who has some strong forwards with mongrel or the fastest back in the comp it is about who can play as a team and execute what they have been taught.

 

[Ruck & Maul 101]

North Harbour 15's lost to Victoria 15 -5
North Harbour 17's lost to Victoria 32-8

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I wouldn't be too hasty to write off south harbour 17s on pool B. They have some strong forwards with a bit of mongrel and a very even back line one player who I'd put good money on as the quickest going around. I reckon they'd love all this talk about north west having it sewn up.nothing better than an upset.

They lost to ACT 49-12 and, by the sounds of it, they were lucky to get 12.
I predicted the ACT result but I am surprised by the Vic loss.
In both cases I suspect that the teams are essentially state sides that have been playing up here in our state champs for some years and invariably doing well.
The selection process and timing in Sydney - in a comp I gather is intended to lure boys from non rugby playing schools and backgrounds - was, as I said at the time, farcical.
Additionally, it seems it was assumed that boys who had played Nsw Schools U16's would welcome participation in the comp: their names appeared in squad lists. They did not ever front for South Harbour so it makes you wonder what made the "selectors" think they'd be interested.

 

[Wood Rat]

Not an entirely surprising result, Victoria and to a less extent ACT performed well in the U/16 Nationals last year, Victoria made the Sydney team work for the entire match in their pool games at Riverview. It would not be unexpected to see them in the finals. Throw in the 4:30am alarm to catch 7:30am am flight to Melbourne to play this morning and the North harbour blokes would have been pushed to perform at their peak. I wonder if a Saturday flight and an extra $60/80 a head for some cheep hotel rooms may have helped the performance and experience and preparation.
Even with more even conditions I am not sure the result would be very different

 

[Wood Rat]

"Additionally, it seems it was assumed that boys who had played NSW Schools U16's would welcome participation in the comp: their names appeared in squad lists. They did not ever front for South Harbour so it makes you wonder what made the "selectors" think they'd be interested." I.S. #495
There is a whole raft of reasons squad members might withdraw. lumping all in with "Not Interested" is a little simplistic.

but a little success for those trying to develop the game amongst the heathens is not necessarily a bad thing

sorry I don't know what the font is going on with this computer

 

[Adam Osborne]

U/15 Brumbies vs Sydney South Harbour was an amazing game today, all the boys played their hearts out. Brumbies managed to close the game out, but Sydney South were very very strong.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

"Additionally, it seems it was assumed that boys who had played NSW Schools U16's would welcome participation in the comp: their names appeared in squad lists. They did not ever front for South Harbour so it makes you wonder what made the "selectors" think they'd be interested." I.S. #495
There is a whole raft of reasons squad members might withdraw. lumping all in with "Not Interested" is a little simplistic.

but a little success for those trying to develop the game amongst the heathens is not necessarily a bad thing

sorry I don't know what the font is going on with this computer

So why leave their names up in the squads?

 

[Top Cat]

Not an entirely surprising result, Victoria and to a less extent ACT performed well in the U/16 Nationals last year, Victoria made the Sydney team work for the entire match in their pool games at Riverview. It would not be unexpected to see them in the finals. Throw in the 4:30am alarm to catch 7:30am am flight to Melbourne to play this morning and the North harbour blokes would have been pushed to perform at their peak. I wonder if a Saturday flight and an extra $60/80 a head for some cheep hotel rooms may have helped the performance and experience and preparation.
Even with more even conditions I am not sure the result would be very different

Wood Rat, I agree with you regarding the Nationals last year and that is why I said Victoria and Sydney North Harbour U17's would be a good match. I have seen the improvement in the ACT over the years and when you think about it Victoria and the ACT are the two teams that remain 'intact' so to speak. It will be interesting to watch the ACT and see how much of an improvement they have made since the Nationals.

On paper it looks like there is the probability of not having a Sydney team in the U17's semi finals.