John I. Dent Cup 2017 - ACT Premier Rugby

[No.8]

Predictions:

Royals V Tuggeranong

By far the game of the round - Royals seem to of come out of nowhere this year! Vikings have been solid/consistent and ticking along nicely where-as Royals have come out of the blocks hard (hopefully not peaking to early) - I believe it will be a close game but with two very good attacking sides anything could happen.

Royals by 5


Queanbeyan V Easts

This game has prob come at the perfect time for Queanbeyan as it will give them a chance to settle things down a bit and also give them an extra week to get some of their top guys back - there are that many guys out of the 1st XV it's not funny. Carl Elliot has been named at 2 though and I was under the impression he was out for awhile - I would say Fainga'a will be playing.

Some other interesting changes:

Billy Chalker has been put in 2nds replaced by David Kerr
Liam Mosely the colts 5/8 has replaced Mathews who moves back to fullback
Angus Le Lievre who has been playing full-back moves to 2nd's

At the moment (as mentioned above) Whites still have a number of 1st graders out - the list includes: *** From the Whites Website:

Ryan Jones
Ben Leaper
Oj Noa
Soakai Tai
Ben Gordon
Keither Morgan
Caleb Rech
Mitch Douch

Will be good to see Easts for the first time this year and see what they can do - they will know Queanbeyan are struggling and will sniff blood in the water - they will come out firing and I wouldn't be surprised if they are close if not leading at half-time.

Queanbeyan by 20



Uni Norths V Gungahlin

Uni-Norths will be flying high after their win V Queanbeyan but I just can't see them beating a solid Gungahlin side.

Gungahlin by 6

Wests - BYE

 

[Istanbul]

Not sure Royals can select a much stronger team than the one turning out this afternoon without doing more recruitment. If Royals don't put Tuggies away today it might raise a few questions about how they will roll them later in the year. I think if Tuggies are slightly off their game Royals might get up by 20.

I really want to pick Easts but think the whites will sneak home.

Unis in a close one to prove themselves a true top 4 contender.

 

[bluebags]

The whites surely can't lose this one but eastsmight fancy their chances. Would actually be a good game to watch but I have to go with the whites by 15 - 20.

Am also going with uni in a close one with their scrum being now perfected. Uni by 2

Am hanging to see this one...thought about the possibility of a blowout but both teams are too good to allow that to happen. The big question is will they both play it tight and wait for mistakes or play their natural games. Am going with home advantage. Royals by 6

 

[Istanbul]

Royals up 39 - 7 at half time! Blowing the Vikings off the park.

 

[Brumby Jack]

Gungahlin 33 def Uni-Norths 25
Royals 46 def Vikings 14 (not a typo)

 

[No.8]

Whites 104 - Easts 10

 

[No.8]

Queanbeyan came out with a point to prove and they did just that.

Liam Mosely was outstanding - one of the best performances by a 10 I have seen for a long time in the John I Dent - he is very much a traditional. game controlling No.10 and he did just that. Mosely NEEDS to be in the 1st grade side for the rest of the season - he was extremely impressive - still a colt as well.

Mosely for me was 'Man of the Match' - but the normal stand-out Penca was leading from the front - I still stand by my statement that he is the best No.7 (even though he was playing 8) in the comp - his work-rate and leadership can not be beaten. Saia Fainga'a was another stand-out - only played 40 mins but he totally dominated at scrum time - to the point where Easts could not complete one scrum in the first half (they only completed one scrum the whole game) - Carl Elliot came on in the 2nd half for Saia and he was insanely good as well.

The whole team/club stepped it up today and proved that maybe they are not done and dusted even with 20 players out - and some of these injured players may need to fight their way back into 1st grade.

2nd Grade was called off due to an injury to an Easts player about 5 mins into the 2nd half - I believe it was 50-60 to nil, to the Whites at this point - this game would of ticked over the century fairly easily as well.

Leaper was back playing 2nd's today also which is a good sign - he is a very strong 1st grader/2nd rower.


I was not impressed with Easts as a club today - their 1st Grade coach basically spent the whole 1st half shouting at the ref some the sideline and then totally blasted his players at half time. He needs to go - he is obviously a negative force in the club.

Easts didn't have the numbers to field a 3rd grade side so half the team was Whites players, and RMC didn't even bother showing up for 4th grade.

They simply have no depth and no real heart - it's sad to see.

 

[Istanbul]

Very high quality rugby played at Phillip today. Royals faired the better when it came to Brumbies in the run on side, but both teams rolled out quality line ups.

Was impressed with the change to Staniforth's game. He has always been a beast, but in the past I've felt his constant hit ups can become predictable and teams have muscled up and mugged him. Today there appeared an obvious subtlety where he introduced a nice short pass to keep the defenders guessing. Good contest between him and Iosua Tonga today. Staniforth took the points but Tonga won a few battles between the two.

Very impressed with Sione and Penders - Wagner has been in great form but the Royals front row was very dominant today. There was a very telling moment after halftime where Tuggies had 2 scrum feeds 5 meters out and both went backwards with Royals penalised for screwing. It said a lot that Tuggies went to a line out and turned the ball over rather than opting for a third scrum. I think the scrum machine will be getting a work out at Erindale in coming weeks.

Royals backline was very slick! For mine Jamie Bodman was close to best on ground. For a skinny looking kid he has a real go and is constantly on the ball in every contest. Given some of the bigger names in both backlines i thought he was brilliant. Muirhead is a sharp fullback and Johnson crossed for a first half double and showed what a thumping boot he has.

For the Vikings - Jake Knight showed again that he is is F'n fast! I thought Ah Wong was also dangerous but didn't see enough ball. Jackson-Hope tried hard in the second half but Royals just kept turning up and monstering them in defence.

I'm not sure if the Vikings coaches would be more concerned about how easily Royals ran up 30 against them in the first 40 or how much Tuggies struggled to crack the Royals line in the second half despite all the possessions, Royals being down to 14 men for 10 minutes and some fairly friendly calls from the ref.

A very entertaining game that will leave the team from Phillip feeling pretty confident about its premiership chances this year and the men from Erindale to perhaps consider a mid year 'recruitment drive'.

 

[bluebags]

Very high quality rugby played at Phillip today. Royals faired the better when it came to Brumbies in the run on side, but both teams rolled out quality line ups.

Was impressed with the change to Staniforth's game. He has always been a beast, but in the past I've felt his constant hit ups can become predictable and teams have muscled up and mugged him. Today there appeared an obvious subtlety where he introduced a nice short pass to keep the defenders guessing. Good contest between him and Iosua Tonga today. Staniforth took the points but Tonga won a few battles between the two.

Very impressed with Sione and Penders - Wagner has been in great form but the Royals front row was very dominant today. There was a very telling moment after halftime where Tuggies had 2 scrum feeds 5 meters out and both went backwards with Royals penalised for screwing. It said a lot that Tuggies went to a line out and turned the ball over rather than opting for a third scrum. I think the scrum machine will be getting a work out at Erindale in coming weeks.

Royals backline was very slick! For mine Jamie Bodman was close to best on ground. For a skinny looking kid he has a real go and is constantly on the ball in every contest. Given some of the bigger names in both backlines i thought he was brilliant. Muirhead is a sharp fullback and Johnson crossed for a first half double and showed what a thumping boot he has.

For the Vikings - Jake Knight showed again that he is is F'n fast! I thought Ah Wong was also dangerous but didn't see enough ball. Jackson-Hope tried hard in the second half but Royals just kept turning up and monstering them in defence.

I'm not sure if the Vikings coaches would be more concerned about how easily Royals ran up 30 against them in the first 40 or how much Tuggies struggled to crack the Royals line in the second half despite all the possessions, Royals being down to 14 men for 10 minutes and some fairly friendly calls from the ref.

A very entertaining game that will leave the team from Phillip feeling pretty confident about its premiership chances this year and the men from Erindale to perhaps consider a mid year 'recruitment drive'.

Close to the best 40 minutes of rugby I've seen. Could not fault 1 royals player and most were mightily impressive. The vikes simply looked shellshocked. While they had little ball in the 1st half, when they did they could do nothing with it. The whole royals side appears choke full of confidence and looks like they believed they could score at will. Their passing was slick and they had a willingness to counter and spread the ball wide at all times. On the other hand the Vikings rarely made the gain line and there were many nervous passes and kicks.cusack and staniforth were immense and often worked together in holding up runners or pinching balls. The scrum was dominant and they won or disrupted a number of red throws.
The 2nd half saw tuggers hold a lot more ball but again they looked a little aimless and certainly missed Thompson. They were even unable to score against 14 men. Robinson again was probably their best. Vjoda, the oakman boys and knight were all busy but were simply swamped. Ah wong did have a better game but was well contained. When Johnson stood him up to score, I felt that if he's already out of favour, then it might almost signal the end to his brumbies callups.
All up just as awesome display by royals

 

[Istanbul]

A lot of Royals success must sit with Southwell. He must be a very good coach. Royals hunger was most impressive - Cusack, Staniforth and Sione weren't there to get a bit of game time they looked like they really wanted to give it all for Royals. It seemed contagious and it was very noticeable how positive the talk was from Royals at every line out and scrum. It was hard not to notice the difference at half time when every Royals player jogged to the sheds while Tuggies walked to the huddle. Muirhead even ran off to the sin bin well before being shown the yellow card which was a tad odd.

I thought the Tuggies 9 Kota Iwamura looked solid and will get better as the season progresses

 

[Istanbul]

Sam "Stripper" Giltrap was solid in seconds. His goal kicking was rock solid when the game was in the balance and he scored a nice try to ice the game which he can add to his porno highlights reel. I didn't think Ernest had a bad game but he might be looking over the shoulder a bit.

 

[Caputo]

Easts didn't have the numbers to field a 3rd grade side so half the team was Whites players, and RMC didn't even bother showing up for 4th grade.

They simply have no depth and no real heart - it's sad to see.

'RMC didn't even bother showing up for 4th grade.' Are you sure or maybe they had more important things to do like work. They can be inconsistent with having to play catch up mid week later in the season.

 

[No.8]

Will be interesting to see how Vikings bounce back next week V Wests - it will show the sort of side they are in regards to how they come back from prob the biggest loss in recent memory.

Will def check the Vikings V Wests game out next week. . .

 

[Istanbul]

The easts situation doesn't seem sustainable for much longer you wouldn't think which must be a massive headache for the ACTRU. I don't think it would healthy for the comp to drop a team so if Easts fail I believe they need to be replaced. Not a lot of options available sadly.

Possibly a bit controversial but I feel Tuggies are big enough to support two teams in the comp. Would need to be totally independent of the current team but possibly something similar to the Lanyon team it started a few years back. Currently Tuggies are a massive fish in a little pool and the Vikings group could comfortably support two teams a bit like how the Southern Cross support both Royals and Wests.

I'm sure there are plenty of flaws in this suggestion but we will need some sort of solution soon I think and a second Vikings group team will be more viable than Easts in the long term.

 

[No.8]

The easts situation doesn't seem sustainable for much longer you wouldn't think which must be a massive headache for the ACTRU. I don't think it would healthy for the comp to drop a team so if Easts fail I believe they need to be replaced. Not a lot of options available sadly.



Possibly a bit controversial but I feel Tuggies are big enough to support two teams in the comp. Would need to be totally independent of the current team but possibly something similar to the Lanyon team it started a few years back. Currently Tuggies are a massive fish in a little pool and the Vikings group could comfortably support two teams a bit like how the Southern Cross support both Royals and Wests.



I'm sure there are plenty of flaws in this suggestion but we will need some sort of solution soon I think and a second Vikings group team will be more viable than Easts in the long term.

Yea mate I have no idea what the answer is.

As I mentioned Queanbeyan as a club had a point to make yesterday so Easts were always going to be up against it - but not to field a 4th grade game, forfeit 3rd grade (a friendly was played), 2nd grade would of cracked 100 and 1st grade cracked the 100 - is just not good enough.

I have to say though that their Colts side looked good - some of the players I believe should be playing 1st grade BUT then you would have the situation in regards to weakening the semi-strong Colts team - I think their colts side is coming 5th.

SO if some of those Colts players stick around for a few years they could be able to build a decent side.

Apart from their colts side though I was really unimpressed about how the club held themselves - led by of all people the 1st grade coach haha.

Just had a quick look at the draw and Queanbeyan play Easts three times this season which could help them sneak into the top 4. I believe Queanbeyan will be 2 points behind Gungahlin (4th/5th spot) - Gungahlin play Royals next week and Queanbeyan have the BYE - so hopefully they should crack top 4 by next week.

 

[RoffsChoice]

Royals really put on a show for us yesterday. Even more amazing that yesterday is the most points we've conceded all season, and the second-least we've scored. The game against the Whites in two weeks is a great chance to establish ourselves as the dominant team for the season.

Easts is a sad story, amazing how much damage one incompetent board can do to a club. Even if they only had half a 3rds yesterday, it's a massive improvement on only having a 1sts, 2nds, and colts a few years ago.

 

[bluebags]

The easts saga is both sad and frustrating. They started the season with seemingly a lot of improvement and a bit of possibility. Even the hammering they took at the hands of royals, while not good,when taken in the context of what royals are doing to the rest of the comp, is not the end of the world. Yesterday's effort however,based on these reports is really alarming. Moreso, the apparent lack of spirit and leadership. Like the rest, I have no solution but can't help wonder why the brumbies haven't stepped in to some degree. I understand financially they won't help, but other manpower, resources and even encouragement would assist. The idea of the Vikings group lending a hand to some degree is not untenable. C'mon easts we need you

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I understand financially they won't help, but other manpower, resources and even encouragement would assist. The idea of the Vikings group lending a hand to some degree is not untenable. C'mon easts we need you

The Brumbies don't seem to distribute the contracted talent or that not the case

 

[RoffsChoice]

It's my impression that the only reason Easts still exists is because the Brumbies stepped in, and that helping out Easts, Wests, and Norths has actually been a significant expense for them.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

Muirhead even ran off to the sin bin well before being shown the yellow card which was a tad odd.

A sign of a good YC, Muirhead infringed to prevent a Try knowing the team were on a warning given at the preceding LO. Players believe that the clock starts when they hit the naughty chair he just wanted to get over and done with.
1st Blue Card for a Prem 1 game issued as well I believe with Cusack going to Disneyland that was a hell of a lump on his head he looked like a Unicorn