A better performance by the Knox 16s today. After a shaky start where the Barker boys had territorial ascendancy, the Knox forwards woke up and started to hit the Barker line with some hard straight running and good support play. The breakdown was still a bit hit and miss, but Knox retained enough ball to gain good territory and a bit of sustained pressure saw play move downfield and a nice flat ball on the Barker line from #10 McInnerney had #13 Cameron crash over for the first Knox try.
It was then a war of attrition, with tempers flaring as traditional Knox-Barker rivalry caused a few boys on both sides to get a bit agitated. Fortunately no one was foolish enough to let fly and things settled as the match moved towards oranges with plenty of willing runners and strong defence from both teams.
In the second half a few mistakes by Knox resulted in Barker pressuring their line with #4 Flaherty looking particularly dangerous. But the Warawee boys dug in each time and forced turnover or penalties at the breakdown and the tension was dissipated somewhat with a Knox penalty kick to take it to 8-0.
Barker then surged back down field and spent some minutes peppering the Knox line, which was assisted by a few Knox indiscretions at the breakdown. That said, the Knox lads defended doggedly and repelled several Barker advances, assisted by some handling errors by the boys in Red. Turning point was an astute move by the Knox coach to bring on both of the (very large) 16B props on a crucial Barker scrum feed 15m their side of half way, with one prop going to 2R. The additional pressure added by these boys resulted in a dominant win against the feed and crucial possession to the Blue n Black. Masi in particular is a #3 to watch for the not too distant future.
With the subsequent possession and 2 mins to go, Knox pressured the Barker line and McInerney managed to scavange the ball from the Knox forwards who were picking and driving as though free sausage sangers lay just across the chalk. With a lovely cut out ball which lasered two Barker defenders to OC Cameron, Mc dropped the ball on the chest of replacement winger McEwen who strolled over untouched to make it 13-0, with the subsequent conversion attempt unsuccessful.
Top marks for a full blooded effort by the Barker boys who worked tirelessly in attack and at the breakown all day, and to Knox, who spent more time than they should have relentlessly defending on their try line. Impressed with Barker #2 and 4 who worked hard throughout and threatened with their physicality in attack and defence. Centre Bryden also defended well and cut off a number of promising attacking forays by Knox before they got away. For Knox, #2 Kennedy and #7 Adams toiled relentlessly and #10 McInerney had a great kicking game and directed his troops around well.