I've submitted this for the blog, but fully expect it to be censored! So here goes:
Match report Trinity v Barker
So, I'm curious. Just for the purposes of research, has anyone else been up for an early morning match at Knox's Gillespie Field? And if so, did you succumb to the temptation of one of their egg and bacon sandwiches? And if so, did it poison you?
I'm asking because I was crippled yesterday by a massive bout of food poisoning, and the egg and bacon sandwich was undoubtedly the culprit as it was the only thing I ate all day. It's odd, though, how much actually leaves your stomach compared to how much goes in, when you get a dose of whatever it was I got yesterday.
I feel mean writing this, because the kindly North Shore folk at Knox who cooked and sold the offending sandwich were friendly, good natured volunteers. I'm sure they weren't trying to poison me. Well, almost sure. If Graham Henry were coaching Cranbrook (and with Matt Williams at Knox, how far away can that be?), I can imagine his summary of yesterday's 1st XV game "Look, I'm not saying there was a conspiracy, but I've looked at the tape several times, and questions have to be asked about the pre-match sandwiches."
Anyway. I was feeling pretty seedy by the time I got to Summer Hill but perked up when I saw from the programme that Rihann Barkley-Brown was due to play 15 for the home side. Whether Trinity's pocket-sized excitement machine actually made it on to the field, I can't say, because as the teams ran out, I was busy making the first of many calls to Ruth on the big white telephone. By the time I looked out across the field through watery eyes, Trinity's 20 Benjamin Hyslop was on. Whatever happened, I guess Barkley-Brown's hamstring let him down again. Barker's star No9, Stephen Kirkby, was also out.
In case the information is ever useful to you, there is a bathroom at Trinity with a window through which the scoreboard may be glimpsed from certain angles, so I can tell you that at half-time the score was 10-5 to Barker. A try to Trinity 2 Anthony Nguyen was cancelled out by Barker's 13 Sean Campbell, and 15 David Balcomb converted and added a penalty to give the visitors a narrow lead. I gave up steering the porcelain bus for a while and made it down to the sideline in time to see Barker 12 Smerdon (playing out of his usual position to give Bruce Thompson a game at 10) bring the first half to an end with a smearing cover tackle.
Trinity came out of the blocks hard in the second half. Defending inside its quarter, Barker conceded a penalty for joining from the side, and 11 Fish reduced the margin to two points. A few moments later, blockbusting Trinity 13 Nathaniel Saofia made a bullocking charge towards the corner, and when the ball was recycled, 5 Liam Rasch made a break out wide and fed 12 Jordan Morris for the try. Justin Fish converted, and Trinity had regained the lead at 15-10. In trying to tackle Nathaniel Saofia, star Barker forward 6 Nic Burkett was injured, and he left the field, whereupon the trainer strapped his mid-section in what looked like Glad Wrap, which is a new one to me. Trinity attacked again and 10 Robert Siteine jinked through the line to feed a short pass to Saofia, who is close to unstoppable at short range. Fish's conversion made it 22-10.
Trinity had all the momentum, but that changed in 90 seconds of madness. As Barker attacked in the Trinity quarter, Saofia was yellow-carded for a dangerous, no-arms tackle. The call looked borderline to me. It seemed to me as though Nathaniel Saofia was raising his arms to tackle Campbell, but was surprised at the speed with which the Barker player entered the collision, and so hit him chest-first before he could wrap his arms around his target. It wasn't a terrible call, just a line-ball one. Less than a minute later, as Barker attacked a few metres out, 6 Pernell Filipo reached through the ruck to knock the ball out of the hands of Barker 9 Hunter. And Filipo joined Saofia in the bin. It was poor discipline, but not every referee would have seen it as a card. So two line-ball decisions within two minutes had the result that Barker's fifteen played Trinity's thirteen for nearly ten minutes.
Barker didn't waste the advantage. The ball went wide from a scrum for Sean Campbell to score, and soon afterwards 8 Hamish Phipps went over from short range to make the score 22-22.
Trinity came back once it had its full complement on the field. Barker conceded a couple of penalties at the ruck in its own quarter (but no cards) and Justin Fish added a nerveless penalty to put Trinity 25-22 up. But Barker came back to have the final say when 5 Oscar Cole charged at the line and drove over to score the decisive try.
The players
For Barker, I wasn't convinced about the idea of David Smerdon playing 12; he threw a couple of loose passes and didn't control the game as he might have done at 10. 13 Sean Campbell was always a handful for the defence, running hard and straight. 7 Tim Pearson had a terrific game, foraging everywhere, before he went off injured. Trinity's best was 5 Liam Rasch, perhaps the best line-out forward in the competition, and a great contributor around the field. 1 Harry McLennan was strong and relative newcomer 12 Jordan Morris had his best game at this level so far.
The wrap up
It was a scappy game that rose to no great heights, but two under-strength teams, weakened by injury, threw everything at each other, and the close score and willing nature of the play kept things interesting. The teams kept going until they had nothing left to give. After the way I spent the first half, I knew how they felt.
The scorers
Barker 27 S Campbell 2 H Phipps O Cole tries D Balcomb 2 goals, penalty goal
Trinity 25 A Nguyen, N Saofia, J Morris tries J Fish 2 goals 2 penalty goals
