The time has come for this weeks match preview. The
7th/8thXV Grand Final takes place 13/8/22 on Scots Main Oval, 9am. Built up to be a cracker of a game with each team hoping to add their own piece of history into their school's rich culture. I've heard from both Scots and Shore Representatives that each team are at full strength this weekend. However, Shore's strong win last weekend against Newington 5ths (19-7) puts Shore infront in my book. Shore's captaincy this weekend has again swapped back to past games, with B.E.M Duddy (1) leading the side out, and Mack Sooter (10) dropping down to Vice-captain. B.E.M Doody's fierce nature in his referee relationships, means this game will be extra interesting to watch. The
Forwards for shore this weekend are looking as good as every. Coming of new PB's in the gym for their last S&C session of the year, G.W Beeshop (7) completed a 1 rep 130kg bench press, showing his true brute force. These strength gains made by the no.7 will see him be a struggle in the ruck and scrum for the Scots side. Already stated in last weeks, B.E.M Duddy's ruck clean outs are looking as beautiful as ever, after this weeks training when he took out schoolboy heavyweight, T. Tupou in a rucking drill, he again extended the notion of being a truly one in a generation type of player. The
Backs this weekend are again being led out by Mack Sooter (10) (vc), who didn't surprise anyone when he took hold of the best back award for 2022, at the inaugural Meriton BBQ Lunch. His intense kicking game and bullet like pass is what im predicting to get the Shore Team over the line this weekend. Paired with his running game, which has hinters of Latrell Mitchell in it, im expectingly a close came. My prediction is this game will be an absolute cracker, as they last time these two team met the Shore Fortress like defence was broken 5 minutes after play had stopped, due to Scots 'again-again' pick and drive strategy, causing the end score to come out as 23-25 Scots. This weekend will be a different story, with the Shore team turning a corner since the school holidays, seen as they have gone undefeated with some quite large wins, against competition heavyweights, such as Riverview.
Shore 7-5 Scots with Mack Sooter (10) (vc) converting his own try late in the 2nd half from 40 on the sideline.
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