Newington College vs The Hills Sports High School

[observer]

Newington College vs The Hills Sports High School is on the agenda. I have been told both schools are talking and are keen to get the game on within the next two weeks.

What a great promotion for schoolboy rugby it would be. As Spiro Zavos said in his column this morning we need to restructure schools rugby for the benefit of holding stronger competition among the leading NSW schools. Could this be the watershed?

 

[FTS]

Newington to win by about 15. Hope it happens

 

[the berries]

Well lets wait and see. The talk was Augies, Augies, Augies. Hills in two weeks will be a much faster stronger side than played yesterday. Their style of play will weaken the resolve of these so called super teams. All year the super sides run into less physical opponents. The HSHS lads play 20s ect. Brutal physical contact each week in, each week out. The big surprise was "oh the big guys from Hills ran the whole match". Well thats a result of top level footy each week at the top level. Newington are a no chance. All the silvertails should get down to execution park and watch the story unfold. If they can't get 2,000 to the ground for this match I'll be very surprised.

 

[supporter]

doubt there will be any game. Athletic is on and most of the players are training for their summer sport.

 

[pitbull]

+newington have their best 3 players missing to schoolboys. Aswell as bannon and a few others to athletics

if it went underway it would be hills sports vs newington 2nds

 

[baldingwingforward]

Never going to happen due to GPS summer sport as others have already pointed out. If Newington played without their big 3 they would get towelled!

Shame as it would be interesting to see what happened if both teams were at full strength.

Players being used to playing at 20s level for HSHS would make a difference, but GPS 1st XV is a lot faster than colts so fitness might be an issue for some of the Hills big boys.

 

[observer]

Well thats a result of top level footy each week at the top level.

Many of the boys that played in the Waratah Shield final are playing in the semi final of the ARL Schoolboy Cup (the antecedent of the Arrive Alive Cup) at CUA Stadium on Saturday against Matraville Sports HS. If they win that they will play the national final against Keebra Park QLD.

Sometimes I think teams can play too much footy as Lee remarked when watching Hills play in the second half of the Waratah Shield semi vs Stannies.

As for getting this game on I understand the Newington Director of rugby and First XV coach both want the game. Let's see if they get the approval of the powers that be. Newington supporters on this forum please make some enquiries.

 

[qwerty51]

I don't see it happening. Most of the Newington lads have switched off from rugby apart from those with higher honours who wouldn't play anyway.

 

[the berries]

I heard last night from the Director of Sport at HSHS that a lot of influencial people wish this match to happen with in the next two weeks. A particular business person is putting up 10,000 to the winning school. The game to played at Concord under lights with a massive crowd. Now I hope this is true as the boys from Hills are waiting to get this saturday night out of the way get there union guys back from tonights match at St Marys Weekender stadium. AUSSIE V samoa. And prepare for this awesome contest.

 

[the berries]

Lads , toyota cup is much faster than colts. In colts you catch a cold waiting for the ball. Hills will run them of their feet.

 

[I like to watch]

Berries,
there is no doubting Hills are are awesome side, but their strength IMO is not the pace of their game. It is the size, strength & intimidation that they impose on their opponents.
They did not win the tah shield on speed,it was based on their physical dominance and isolating defenders to be one on one where they knew thay had the advantage.Most of the breaks were from pop balls were from larger ball carriers on smaller defenders.
I am not saying they did not deserve to win last week,they dominated augs.
I am not saying they wouldnt/couldn't beat New.
My point is that their speed is not their strength, it is their size & their power that is their strength.
In the final analysis, probably the best summation of the side is they ran 2nd in Japan, and were never troubled by an Australian side.
A great year by any standard.We can only hope that most of them choose Rugby over League next year
Can't believe that New will restart their rugby program to accomodate Hills, best we can hope for is maybe an early trial next year.

 

[observer]

Any suggestion that Hills do not have speed and flair is a nonsense. Some of the trys they have scored this year and in the final were absolutely spectacular free flowing football. They ran Auggies off their feet behind an awesome pack of forwards that laid a great foundation.

The improvement in this team from a year a go can be put down to three factors, viz,

1. They are a year older, most were under 17 when they were beaten by Auggies in the semi last year.

2. Many of the boys are playing colts rugby, some had their second year in the code and some represented at a high level.

3. The coaches at Hills have done a fine job in improving a number of aspects of their play. They were deficient at the breakdown last year but this is one area where they have really improved.

 

[ikaletahi]

sorry to butt in here but i think it would be good if newington played NC, BSHS or even TSS....i know this will never happen but hey a kid can dream cant he?

 

[I like to watch]

Observer,
I agree each of your points are valid, but not your summation of the game
maybe we need an agree to disagree option below each post.
regardless of how we each see how they won, they did win and in a dominant fashion . They are unquestionably deserved Tah shield champions.
Kudos to HSHS
Lets hope some of these guys go on to the next level in senior rugby. good luck to all of them

 

[Rugbygirl]

Lads, Wallaby great Simon Poidevin has gone on record with his thoughts on the Newington First XV:

“Rarely in the great GPS Rugby Competition in Sydney do people see a team of the quality and power of this year’s Newington 1st XV. The team, coached by Brad Gill and Andrew Hill, played a superb style of rugby, which sets a benchmark that Australia’s Wallabies and Super 15 teams should aspire to.

Many long-term followers of the GPS competition were genuinely shocked at the extent of the Newington victories over rugby powerhouses like St Joseph’s College and Riverview.

The Newington College 1st XV of 2010 is not a team of superstars, but is a great team in the true sense of rugby. ”

Bring on HSHS, bring on Auggies, bring on anyone !!

 

[observer]

Bring on HSHS, bring on Auggies, bring on anyone !!

Love your passion! Yeah.....bring it on!

 

[Hugh Jarse]

I reckon that Newington has moved on to Athletics already. Shame.

These things (Waratah shield winner vs GPS winner; GPS Sydney winner vs GPS Brisbane winner etc) need to be worked out well in advance.

As much as we would all like to see it, it most probably won't happen. The schools are moving on towards the summer programme, and the year 12's are starting to focus on examinations, and the representative players are focused on their potential future careers via the various representative teams (mungoball or rugby) they find themselves in.

 

[qwerty51]

I saw this as a full page add in the local paper today. Bit tacky I thought.
May I remind the readers as well that AAGPS has seen teams, even more dominate than Newington this year.
There was this side in 1990 from St Josephs who won the championship with an average of 42 points per game and had nine Aus schoolboys.
I do not recall if SJC then used it as add to lure students to the School.
Well done Newington in the title, but please keep it in perspective.

Considering they gave Joeys their biggest defeat in some 80 years and the 2nd biggest ever, they are quite a side.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Notwithstanding how good the footy team may be, An ad of that nature is still quite tacky.

Is the GFC hitting enrollments at GPS schools that badly that they feel they need to advertise in that manner.

Perhaps they need to adjust their budget and fees they charge to reflect what parents are prepared to pay for their boys education ( or what they can actually afford to educate their boys).

 

[barbarian]

Thats a pretty slick production. Boys playing sport and succeeding in academics or drama is hardly unique to Newington and you could write an identical ad for each GPS school, but I'd imagine it would certainly help the school get its name out there in the community. Good on them if it drives up enrolments.