Trinity 47 St Aloysius 29
Apart from Clunies-Ross, Trinity was missing Kotobalavu and Morsello. Pack moved to outside-centre, Roberts was full-back and Coffill filled in at hooker. St Aloysius had in the ball in the first couple of minutes and only an excellent covering tackle from Clark saved a try in the corner. From the line-out, St Aloysius won the ball and rolled over: 5-0. St Aloysius worked hard to spoil Trinity's ball, but often gave away panalties at the breakdown: Clark missed two shots at penalty goal, one very difficult, one rather easier. He made up for that with a great break which took play close to the line, and Cameron Orr crashed over: 5-5. Another infringement at the ruck, and Clark kicked the penalty for an 8-5 lead. The Trinity back line seemed to be playing with much more confidence and there was some powerful running from the forwards, especially the formidable Junior Satiu, while for Aloysius, Rory Vevers always looked to attack from full back. Trinity won yet more penalties at the ruck (the referee issued warnings but never went for a card) and from a tap near the line Orr went over under the posts. Clark kicked his second from five shots: 15-5. Orr, who I know has been injured, looks as much as 10 kilos overweight, but it didn't seem to diminish his impact or workrate. St Aloysius won a line-out about 10 metres out and rolled over again (again the try scorer was under a heap of bodies and I couldn't tell who it was). Vevers converted: 15-12. Clark replied with another penalty: 18-12, and just before half time Vevers missed a shot at penalty that would have closed the gap to three points.
Trinity began the second half horribly. Clark sliced his kick-off, which was returned deep into Trinity's corner. Trinity tried to run out of defence, and the isolated ball carrier gave away a penalty for not releasing, which Vevers kicked: 18-15. At which point, Trinity changed gear. Clark marked an aimless kick inside his own quarter, and surprised the defence by taking a tap and making a weaving run up the left side before kicking for his winger. The ball rolled into touch, but from a scrum soon after, Ola Moala (back from the blood bin) picked up the ball at No8 and crashed over. Clark converted: 25-15. Jacob Roberts made a terrific break, butchered the try by ignoring his unmarked winger, Rihann Barkley-Brown, but flanker Rory Hurst got to the breakdown first, lobbed a pass to Barkley-Brown, and the try was scored in the corner. 30-15. Vevers went off at that point with what looked like a broken collarbone (but that's just a guess). Hurst had his best game at this level, and a couple of minutes later he charged down a clearing kick just outside the quarter and won the chase to the ball to score. 37-12 with Clark's goal. Now the Trinity players were lining up for chances to score. Ola Moala ignored the three unmarked players outside him and decided he could beat the two or three defenders between him and the line. He was right, but it would have been better Rugby to get the ball wide. 42-15. Tim Russell, the St Aloysius half-back, left the field injured. Connor Finn made a fantastic 50-metre run which would have been even better if he'd released the ball to the men outside him, but after he was tackled Brent Whicker gathered the ball and went over in the corner - 47-15. St Aloysius' winger Shaun Townsend swooped onto one of Clark's trademark long passes and ran the intercept in under the posts and a few minutes later, he was over again in the corner after St Aloysius worked an overlap from a 5 metre scrum. Harrison Williams kicked an excellent goal from the sideline. So it finished up 47-29. Possibly Trinity took its foot off the pedal in the last few minutes - there were a heap of subs with numbers like 18, 20 and 23 running around - but full credit for St Aloysius for putting in until the end.
It's hard to imagine Trinity will be happy with this. They're still unbeaten, and still winning because they have so many talented individuals. Teamwork is lacking, and it was depressing to see the number of times players took on the defence themselves when they had unmarked players in better positions around them. Clark wouldn't be happy with his kicking - 5 from 11 wasn't great, although he did some wonderful things in attack, and (critics of his defence should note) made two try-saving tackles as last line of defence.
The fact that Trinity leaked 29 points to a team that couldn't score against Cranbrook will worry them, and the fact that Cranbrook got so close to Barker is proof that next week's game could be a very tough one. Trinity still looks vulnerable in the lineout (two tries were scored from line-outs close to the line) and out wide (where two tries were scored). St Aloysius had plenty of practice kicking off, but Trinity won very few of these restarts. Aloysius also competed well in the scrums. In attack, Trinity still has a heap of dangerous runners but very few players show any awareness of how to position or release their supports. They need to start playing more like a team.
For St Aloysius, Vevers was good while he was on the field and Harrison Williams worked hard all day.
I notice for the first time that the St Aloysius home programme included the year in which each of its players entered the school. The reason's obvious - look, no imports here, folks! But why do it? Is it an excuse made before the game starts ("look, we're going to lose, but only because we have no imports") or a declaration of righteousness ("we're morally superior to you because we have no imports")? Who knows? Whatever the reason, it strikes an unpleasantly snarky note. If the school is interested in displaying its purity, maybe it should have a word to the group of old boys who congregate in the far corner of the ground and amuse themselves by telling the opposition goal kicker, as he moves in to kick, that he "has a small dick".
