NSW GPS 2015 rugby season review

The season wrap

The NSW GPS 2015 rugby season  has come to a close and what a fantastic season it was. There were many highlights and moments that will forever be remembered by players, coaches and spectators.

In this review, we hope to capture many of those moments in a celebration of what is without doubt, one of the most attractive brands of Rugby on this planet. We also want to ‘keep it real’ by respectfully addressing some of the lowlights as well. But more on that later.

After ten rounds, Newington and Scots finished the season joint-premiers and winners of the Schools Challenge Trophy, for the second time in three years. Congratulations lads.

Newington and Scots were always going to be up there, along with Joeys, while the Kings, Riverview and Shore faithful weren’t so hopeful. But the form in the trial games indicated this would be a closer contest across the board than the 2014 version.

All teams played with tremendous passion throughout the season and put on some brilliant displays at times, with lack of consistency and injuries the achilles-heel for the teams that finished in lower positions.

GPS Rugby is alive and well and next year’s premiership is looking to be closer still. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Here is a round by round description of how 2015 unfolded.

The rounds

Round 1

The first round started off with a comprehensive Newington victory 27-14 over Scots at Bellevue Hill. At Hunters Hill, Joeys blew Riverview off the park in the second half for a final score of 45 – 12. And Kings notched the first of three wins this year, taking down Shore 21 – 7 at North Parramatta.

Round 2

Based on the previous week’s performances, it appeared as though premiership favouritism had shifted from Bellevue Hill to Hunters Hill (and Stanmore). But Scots looked way better prepared in their Round 2 clash with Joeys, winning 21 – 15. Shore nearly knocked off Riverview at Northbridge in a much improved display from their Week 1 outing, but Riverview ultimately won 22 – 17. And Newington’s stocks continued to rise after they downed Kings 36 – 7 at North Parramatta.

Round 3

The first of many thrillers this season were played at Stanmore and Lane Cove. Newington beat Joeys 26 – 23 and Riverview accounted for Kings 36 – 26. Scots took momentum into round 3 with a comprehensive 43 – 15 win over a willing but injury-struck Shore at Northbridge.

Round 4

After being stretched the previous week, Newington got back on a roll beating Shore 43 – 17 at Stanmore. With confidence rising, Joeys put a dent in the Kings boys self-belief winning 47 – 12 at North Paramatta. Meanwhile Scots were tested at home by Riverview, particularly in the second half, but ended up winning 36 – 26.

Round 5

Two matches went largely as expected with home ground victories for Joeys over Shore 39 -18 and Scots over Kings 36 – 12. The third match, at Lane Cove, was another thriller. The score was 38-36 Newington’s way with two minutes to play, with a New try on the buzzer bringing the full-time score to 45-36.

Round 6

Shore’s woes continued, losing 32 – 0 against Kings at Northbridge. While high drama was witnessed at Stanmore, where Scots and Newington had a 17-all draw, which put Scots one-point below their combatants on the table. And, at Lane Cove, Joeys scored two tries in the final three minutes, the first from an intercept, to come from behind and beat Riverview 33 – 23.

Round 7

Yet another thriller unfolded, this time at Bellevue Hill, where Scots turned around a big deficit to take the lead in the final minutes and record a 34 – 29 victory over Joeys. In the other matches, Riverview beat Shore 43 – 7 and Newington toppled Kings by a margin of 55 – 10.

Round 8

Just when it was thought we’d not see any further surprises, Joeys defeated Newington 27-12 in a table changing match that elevated Scots to equal first position. Kings turned in one of their best performances of the season in beating Riverview 33 – 17 and a very injury-depleted Shore had their worst match in 2015 losing 64 – 12 to a Scots team on fire at Bellevue Hill.

Round 9

Riverview looked eager to make amends at home for their round 8 loss and early in the match had Scots on the ropes 26 – 7, before a second half try-fest saw Scots run away with it 47 – 33. King’s continued their late season turnaround with a performance at Hunters Hill to be very proud of, where Joeys got up by 35 – 24 in the end. And Newington were just too big and strong for Shore, who lost 55 – 12 at Northbridge, despite some herculean performances from key players.

Round 10

With only one round to go and the season’s heavy-weights, Newington and Scots tied at the top of the table, there were three possibilities. But when Scots defeated a committed and at times abrasive Kings side 31 – 13 at North Parramatta, an outright premiership win for Newington had been taken out the equation.

Scots had at least one hand on the trophy and were proud they had helped to create history, by being in a team that delivered Scots it’s third consecutive premiership (joint or outright) for the first time ever.

But as the Scots and Kings players shook hands, the match was still underway at Stanmore and word filtered through that View were ahead 38 – 37 with only a minute remaining. Could View finally have reached the potential they had shown on many occasions throughout the season to pull off what would have been quite the upset, particularly for New?

Another thrilling finish awaited and many in attendance at Stanmore couldn’t watch, let alone breathe. Despite tenacious defence from View, New crossed to score a try that won them the game and a joint-premiership.

The word then got out at North Parramatta that New had pulled off the ultimate Houdini and the Scots boys would have to settle for equal first. But much to the Scots boys credit, they took it in their stride, being well aware that even just sharing a GPS premiership was an achievement so few people had managed. But they were also conscious of, like all the other teams, that the match they had just completed would be the last time they all played together and the memories they would take with them were alone worth celebrating.

Meanwhile, over at Northbridge, Shore showed the form many expected they were capable of and finished their difficult season with big smiles. Although they went down to Joeys 28 – 12, they played far better than the scoreline suggests and can sign-off 2015 knowing that they mixed it admirably on occasions with their opponents.

Click on Page 2 below for a review of how each team performed over the season