Sydney Uni 11 - Northern Suburbs 23
This was an ugly game under the Uni lights and one to you'd back Uni to win most of the time, but Northerns battled their way through pressure times in the match and took their 2 try scoring chances.
Uni didn't have a plan B: they had a few longish periods of dominance but kept pick and driving up the middle at the money end of the ground. Apart from one time when Lachie McCutcheon went over, the Longshoremen held them out. At the end, when the penny dropped that they were losing again at home, Uni tried to be more expansive but by then you realised that all the good cattle in their backline were absent on other duties.
There was a rugby league feel to the Uni pack: apart from Sam Carter all the others were mobile attackers and defenders, never far from the ball - not that Sam is a pot plant either. They seemed to miss a few big boppers though things improved when THP Paddy O'Brien came on in the 2nd half. The Uni scrum was punishing, especially after oranges, when Jerry Y and Paddy were propping, but some of their lineout work was untidy.
For Norths: it was good to see 8. AJ Gilbert, the best player on the park, at the ground again. He has trimmed down from when he played for the Rats, and later the Reds, and it looks like he is a better player for it. He still has the dreads but they are receding a bit.
It was good to see 13. Meakes again too as I hadn't seen him since Joeys. He did his chances of getting picked for the Oz U20 side no harm. Veratau was surprisingly decent as a 12. 14 Zak Holmes had a magic moment. On one uncommon occasion, with the score 11-13, the Uni backs shifted the ball wide quickly and Zak read the situation like a comic book, intercepted the pass and ran 80 metres + to score under the posts.
For Uni it was good to see another ex-Joeys lad play senior rugby for the first time. David Hickey is a drovers dog 7 these days and not a 2 or 13. He went OK as did the Victorian lad 8. Jack de Guingand of Oz A Schools, whose future is at 7. 6. Lachie McCutcheon is back healthy again and 9. Schwagger was very good in a losing team.
The 8 starting Uni forwards are all quite young. They will have bigger scrapbooks at the end of their careers than the visiting Norths pack will have when they finish theirs, but tonight the older guys held them out.
