Trinity 17 St Patrick's 15
Trinity got out of jail, scoring with the final play of the game.
St Pat's scored early and led 5-0, which was the half-time score. Trinity made some great breaks, with big forwards Satiu, Morsello, McLean, Moala and Tiumalu-Afele all running hard and straight. Morsello made two strong runs and McLean was a handful when he had the ball. But there was no continuity, and all that work went for nothing because of poor handling and ball retention. Orr, back on the field, coughed the ball up twice when running wide. Clunies-Ross ran strongly but was well contained by a committed defence.
In the second half, Trinity scored early. McLean made a fantastic 40 metre run, and after a few barges at the line by the forwards, Orr crashed over under the posts - 7-5. It looked as though Trinity might run away with the game, but when awarded a penalty close to the line, they took the three points to make it 10-5. St Pat's levelled almost at once from an intercept, then scored another try in the corner (after the referee missed a knock-on) to lead 15-10.
With seconds to go, St Pat's were awarded a free kick inside their own quarter. The smart move would have been to kick for touch, which might even have ended the game. Instead the ball was hoofed downfield, and Trinity kept it for the rest of the game, winning a string of penalties near the tryline before Malaki Tiumalu-Afele crashed over. Clark judged a tricky conversion perfectly.
Trinity was at close to full strength, but often played as though the players had only just met. There was lots of great running from the forwards, but too much was one-out stuff, so that possession was often turned over. Whicker is a fine. competitive player who's dangerous when he scoots down the blind side, but he often got caught in possession at the base of the ruck and his passing is erratic. This meant that Clark was trying to get his backline moving from a poor platform (and contributed to the intercept). Discipline is poor: Orr spent most of the game arguing with the referee (hint: they never change their decisions) and Morsello often wanted to spend his time niggling the opposition. This wouldn't matter so much if Trinity didn't lose concentration so easily and make basic errors. There was a very unpleasant episode after St Pat's scored their third try when one Trinity player (not Orr or Morsello) left the field to respond to some unpleasant heckling from an obnoxious group of supporters.
Trinity played Orr, Morsello and Satiu (who was excellent) in the front row, with McLean and Malaki in the second row. McLean had a tremendous game, running with great power and surprising speed. Corias, Harb and Maoala were the back row. Harb played well and is the side's only reliable source of line-out ball. But that pack (which is probably the best use of Trinity's resources) places a lot of pressure on Corias to get to the breakdown fast, since its strength is bulk and power rather than speed.
Kotobalavu came on late in the second half and made one impressive break, and Roberts played quite well at outside centre. I suspect Finn and Kotobalavu in the centre, with Pack and Roberts on the wings, will be the most dangerous backline, although Cho, who played on the wing, is a wholehearted player.
There's an awful lot for the coaches to work on this week. Trinity will beat anyone if they can string together phases of possession. At the moment handling and control of the breakdown are weaknesses, and the forwards have to give Whicker much better protection so that he can set the backs moving. And the defence out wide still looks vulnerable.
It was quite an ill-tempered game, played in front of a large and vocal crowd. And a good wake-up call for Trinity, who will need to play much better against Waverley. For St Patrick's, the number 13, Peter Seelan (I think) was outstanding, a real threat every time he touched the ball.