5 takeaways from a great weekend of CAS footy:
Barker over Trinity: 37-24
Cranbrook over Knox: 22-19
St Aloysius over Waverley: 22-5
1) The competition is wide open, one of the tightest in many years. Would be a fantastic year for a ten round comp, however, the pre-season games really showed the CAS teams have some grunt about them, beating or challenging many gps teams.
2) Anyone can win on their day. On a cold, windy afternoon on one of the less pleasant grounds in NSW, the Aloys boys took 'death valley' with a point to prove. Having been written off all week, some even feeling sorry for them, the boys in yellow and blue came out firing. For the entire game Weber was instrumental, running, kicking, defending and setting up tries he was stand out. The Waverley boys (for the most part) seemed as though they didn't want to be there as Aloys ran circles around them. On a dark day for the 'double V' there were 2 shimmers of light through captain Rice and fly-half Volkman. Great win to Aloys and I'm sure Waverley will look to bounce back next round against Cranbrook.
3 points: Weber (15 Aloys)
2 points: Allen (4 Aloys)
1 point: Volkman (10 Waverley)
3) Although I wasn't able to make it, all reports sound as though it was a messy one between the red and green. However, what the scoreline does show is that Trinity are not to be taken lightly. Against a team who remains the only undefeated team in the competition, the Trinity boys managed to hold their own (to a degree). Those who play them towards the end of the season should be prepared. Barker leave the round as the only team without a loss, I'm not sure if this talk about points being stripped or not is true or false (probably the latter) but one would have to call the red machine the favourites heading into the representative break.
4) Game of the round IMO: Cranbrook over Knox. What an event, schoolboy rugby at its best. On a night that could hardly be considered pleasant at all, the Knox powerhouse brought a strong crowd which was more than reciprocated by the masses of Cranbrook boys assembled on the hill. I won't go into too much depth as P.Parker's report covered it perfectly. But the major takeaway is that Cranbrook are a team of work horses who evidently wanted it more. While lacking individual talent, seen by the lack of CAS reps (and fairly so IMO), the Cranbrook boys scrapped hard all game, often defending their own line. Jake Taylor was great in the centres in both attack and defence. The forward pack for Cranbrook looked as though they had something to prove taking it to the knox pack all game, particularly the back row. Smith at 9 was great, controlling the game exceptionally with his boot and made some crucial tackles. For Knox, they didn't seem to want it in the first half, but to their credit, fought back hard in the second half, pulling ahead at one point. They missed Gratwicke at 8, while the young man filling in for him tried hard, it just wasn't the same. Breden at 7 was exceptional once again and led from the front for the Knox boys. Evans at 11 can run. Conclusively, I'm not sure if it was the change in jersey against the cranbrook white, or the friday night fixture, but Knox just didn't seem to be as present as the Cranbrook boys.
3 points: Smith (9 Brook)
2 points: Cranbrook backrow
1 point: Breden (7 Knox)
5) SCHOOLBOY RUGBY IS THE REAL WINNER OF THE WEEKEND. It is hard to describe what a weekend like this does for schoolboy footy, two underdogs getting up over 2 powerhouses. A 4 way tie for second place heading into the break, its absolutely anyones game. CAS rugby is more than alive folks, strap in for round 3, huge games ahead. Would love to see the CAS 1's and 2's take it to an outstanding GPS crop, carn the reds.
