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ARU Junior Gold Cup - National Junior Championships

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sidelineview

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What looks to be the strongest Sydney U15 and U17 Gold Cup teams. Who are the stand out players? Maybe those questions will be answered after the weekend.
 

Shane Smeltz

Fred Wood (13)
What looks to be the strongest Sydney U15 and U17 Gold Cup teams. Who are the stand out players? Maybe those questions will be answered after the weekend.

Agree we will have to see after the weekend.

But I do know that North West and Norths lost a couple of their better 15s forwards recently - boys committing to playing the other rugby code.
All boys a standout in the other rugby code.

A pity to lose them. They would have made a difference in their respective JGC teams.
One of the boys is just 14, tall and weighs 104kg with the strength, speed and mongrel to match.
You can read about him on the back page of today's Manly Daily.
 

Chris McCracken

Jim Clark (26)
Some good Rugby in Orange today with Western v Illawarra. Western won both games.

I'm not sure of the score in the 15s game as I was a bit busy. But I believe it was a two point margin after a last minute try.

The 17s - I'm pretty sure - was 20-10.
 

Azzuri

Trevor Allan (34)
15 Northwest Sydney 62 South Australia 3
17 Northwest Sydney 26 South Australia 0


I was at the Sydney NW vrs Adelaide games.

The SNW teams flew into the cauldron that was Adelaide weather at around midday Sunday.

The 15's game kicked off at 2pm with the mercury hovering around 38 degrees......perfect weather for Xercole's but hard going for mammals used to combative pursuits in cooler climes.

The SNW 15's got away to a great start with an opening try in the first minutes of the game being a portent of the procession to come. The NW forward pack were fast, strong and mobile and set a great platform and go forward for their backs. While the SNW side were clearly dominate in all aspects of the game the SA lads played with plenty of spirit and demonstrated great potential. It was an entertaining game and some great development take aways for both teams.

In the 17's the game was more of an arm wrestle played mainly in the forwards. SNW established dominance early with a resulting 19 - 0 lead going into oranges. The second half saw a run of handling areas and penalties which conspired to slow down the pace of the game and the scoring with SNW leaving at least three tries on the park. Dogged defense by SNW kept the score line on empty for the SA lads but they should be proud of their efforts and they will be better off for the hit out next game.

All in all a great first hit out for the lads from both sides and both age groups with lots learnt by the victors and the vanquished.
 

the baz

Alfred Walker (16)
Sydney north beats c coast in both ages groups. Sydney north 15's were good, but c coast were poor, so north will need to show more grunt against some of the bigger teams. For the 17's, the north 10 was outstanding, guiding the boys around the park. The 15, 12, 4 were also exceptional. the coast 10 was ok as was the 1, but they showed there lack of depth, we
hen subs came on they lost their way.
 

Westie

Sydney Middleton (9)
Some good Rugby in Orange today with Western v Illawarra. Western won both games.

I'm not sure of the score in the 15s game as I was a bit busy. But I believe it was a two point margin after a last minute try.

The 17s - I'm pretty sure - was 20-10.

15's was 10-7, good contest, illawarra deserved the victory. Hands let them down.
 

Sunny

Ted Fahey (11)
From the little I've heard and see from round 1,
Logan have 2 big teams in the U15 and 17's
Some real big boppers who will take some putting down.
heaps of pics on their "Junior Gold Cup-Lagan centre" facebook page.
I think their favourites in the Qld group.
Followed by Brisbane Purple, who have a good sized hard working pack and some speedy backs, will be interesting if they gel?
 

Thomo77

Frank Nicholson (4)
I was lucky enough to watch the Western Sydney vs. Rebels games on Sunday. Tough road trip for the Sydney team who flew down and back same day - but by all accounts the boys enjoyed themselves despite losing in both the 15s and 17s.

The 15s scoreline of 52-10 was pretty reflective of the run of play with the Rebels exploiting some easy turnovers and poor execution at the set-piece by the Sydney side. It was clear that the Rebels had the benefit of having played together as a team for some time, and they were merciless at the breakdown and out wide. There were more points on offer to them throughout the match, but a combination of some freakish / lucky cover defense and poor last passes kept it respectable with the bulk of the points scored in the last 15 minutes through the backs.

There were promising signs up front for the Sydney team - when they held the ball and played simple footy, they were very hard to stop... I'm a biased dad, but the 12 for Sydney scored a great individual try that was set up off the back of some good continuity and space made by the forwards. Sydney's other try was simple teamwork, control and horsepower in the forwards, worked off of good field position.

Stand-outs for the Rebels were the 7, 9, 13 & 15. For Sydney, the 8 (Musika), the 16 (Natane), the 3 (Malakai) and the 12 (Connor)* all worked hard and had some impact.

*Dad bias warning

Sydney will need to work harder on the basics and sort out their backline defense if they are to be successful and Melbourne will likely struggle against big rumbling forward packs that can maintain possession.

The 17's was a much closer affair with the Rebels winning 31 to 22. It was a game of two halves with the Rebels dominating the 1st half and then a much better effort from the Sydney side in the second half to have the game in the balance until the last 5 minutes. Sydney suffered a set-back early with a player yellow carded in the first couple of minutes, and the rest of the game was very stop-start with a large penalty count both ways.

The Rebels fullback is a streak of lightening and had a hand in almost all of their points. Beyond that, they are a solid unit and strong across the park - especially at the breakdown. For Sydney West, the 19 (Ryan) had a major impact on the team's attitude when he hit the paddock. The 7 (Patrick) was strong, and the backs looked dangerous with the ball in hand - just needed to make the last pass stick. There was some good interplay in the forwards that didn't always come off - but is likely to be damaging if it does.

Given many of the boys were up at 4am and had to deal with the travel it was a valiant effort from the Sydney teams and played in good spirits.

It was lovely to see both teams from the under 15's all take a knee and say a few words of thanks after the game and then sit down for a feed and a cold drink together. They looked great as a unit despite not having their travel shirts and, seeing that, and the camaraderie and experience the boys got from being there, definitely changed my perspective on some of the little niggles related to the organisation of the program etc and reminded me what rugby and sport, in general, is all about.
 

Thomo77

Frank Nicholson (4)
Agree we will have to see after the weekend.

But I do know that North West and Norths lost a couple of their better 15s forwards recently - boys committing to playing the other rugby code.
All boys a standout in the other rugby code.

A pity to lose them. They would have made a difference in their respective JGC teams.
One of the boys is just 14, tall and weighs 104kg with the strength, speed and mongrel to match.
You can read about him on the back page of today's Manly Daily.



Similar story for the Sydney West Team - but in the backline. There's a lot of talent playing Harold Matts that will come back to club footy but couldn't balance the competing demands of the two summer programs.

In the long term, it will be interesting to see if the teams are rationalised a little to be competitive or if the focus will continue to be on 'development' through mass participation. Based on my knowledge of the cattle available, if one of the Sydney teams were to go by the wayside, you'd have 3 strong teams across the park - with the current 4 teams, the available talent is, unfortunately, spread a little thin (especially when combined with the drain to Harold Matts).
 

Sunny

Ted Fahey (11)
Ha ha Nope, don't know all the boys, so that's a hard call.
They'll maybe make the Qld team from kids who made the Qld city and Qld Country teams mostly I guess.
Not sure of NSW process, might be similar.
 
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