Newington vs Grammar
Not much of a competition. Newington by 25+
I have been reading the posts on GPS and I cannot believe how week in week out the analysis of the Grammar match invaribaly rises no higher than this sort of dismissive comment - ie Grammar will be thrashed; there will be a blow out; no competition.
There is no dispute Grammar is not as strong as the other teams for a variety of reasons, but principally because it does not have the numbers playing rugby, no boarding house and decades of headmasters thinking it is great to churn out high UAI scores to create an epidemic of SGS old boy doctors and lawyers. In any event, the school fields a team that is still part of the GPS. It may not be for long. But they are still in it. The repeatedly dismissive, arrogant comments are frankly insulting to the many boys at that school who love rugby and play as hard as they can each week. To those who say they should be booted out of the competition, then that proves my point about the arrogance of those talking about other schools. It is absolutely in the interests of GPS rugby for Grammar to be encouraged. We do not want another school falling away like High. Soon the GPS competition will be only a few teams. It is only through scholarships and recruiting that some of the smaller schools still compete.
I have read reams and reams of stuff about Joeys and Kings and View and who sings what song after a game, but all you posters can muster is a few derogatory comments about Grammar. It is pathetic. The comments are about boys playing rugby and that same attitude permeates through the parents on the sideline, the attitude of some opposition and perhaps the attitude of GPS selectors. Just because Grammar is a weaker team, it doesn't mean everyone of the boys are weak. But that appears to be the attiutde of most.
I have watched two Grammar matches this year - Kings and Joeys. For a team that trains twice weekly I understand, they didn't do too badly. There is no doubt that Kings was a vastly superior team. Their backs created untold havoc out wide. I think all tries were by backs. The Grammar outside backs have little idea how to match up in defence. McCormack and Ingate were largely unstoppable. But in the forwards, they held their own. They were much smaller, but did not give an inch. Too easy to say the bigger Kings pack outmuscled teh smaller Grammar pack - that hjust did not happen. Dare I commit the sacrilege of suggesting Graham, the Grammar number 7 outplayed Connor. The other members of the Grammar backrow, Robinson and Hay were also good and held their own. I was, however, most impressed with Killingworth, Kent and Melrose. The Kings boys thought the Grammar forwards played well and suggested Grammar may beat a couple of other teams. At Joeys, Grammar were behind 16-19 well into the second half. The Grammar forwards were outplaying the Joeys forwards (scoff if you like, but that is what was happening). Williams for Joeys was tirelesss in his efforts. Again, the Grammar backs had little ability to deal with the elusive Joeys backs. Hulme scored 4 tries running around his slower, bigger opponent. Four soft tries. Walford's light feet was something special. The point is that Grammar was well in that match. If it were not for poor decision-making (keeping the ball tighter), the result could have been different from the 12 points victory to Joeys.
There was enough of this dismissive rubbish on that other forum. How about a bit of positive commentary. Or is the competition only about th usual suspects.
