The Stars got their first win of the season in the last round of the National Rugby championship over a luckless Rays in a controversial but ultimately hard fought game of rugby played at Leichardt Thursday night.
The Match
With one team fighting for pride and the other for a finals spot, the game was definitely still on for both the Stars and the Rays in the big Sydney Derby between the two traditional rugby areas. The basically empty Leichardt oval saw a game between 2 improved but still needy bottom of the end of the table teams.
That Stars bounced through a very loose Rays defence to start off with, scoring after 3 minutes with a try to Tipiloma Kaveinga which would set the rhythm of the game for the first quarter. Typical of the stars who have started off strong in many of their games. With the try being converted it only took another 10 minutes before the Stars Jake Wainwright went in for their second, not surprising after the game was held in the Rays half for the entirety of this time. On the edge of the quarter the Rays hit back with a set of forward movements seeing Kotani Ale come off the back of a rolling maul with Hamish Angus converting.
In a controversial decision Mitch Lewis from the Rays grounded the ball in his own try line that saw James Willan awarded a try underneath a short-starting collapsed maul. This was the most controversial decision or event in the NRC of the year but didn’t help the Rays in their attempt to get a bonus point win. Analysing this it’s probably a reason to more closely monitor Jersey designs within the fledgling comp. It didn’t seem like the bad TMO decision would affect the Rays though when they quickly scored two tries, David Feltscheer making an 80 metre run of an intercept of a poor stars pass and Jack Dempsey scoring off a breakaway from Luke Holmes leaving the second half at 18-24 to the Rays.
With the first half’s decisions behind them the Rays looked to have turned the table and found their rhythm to push for their spot in the top four when Malietoa Hingano grubbered across to a quick Josh Holmes for a try in the first minute. This surprisingly didn’t stop the stars spirits however, as they attacked back, being called for a held up not soon after before using their continuous momentum to put Jake Gordon over the line twice in a matter of minutes, both from the back of a dominating scrum. Angus Roberts converting to see the stars back into the lead by 2 34-32, 30 minutes from game end.
This was when the game got interesting and started picking up pace as both teams decided they needed to stay in the fight. With hard hits on Mitch Lewis and penalties for shoulder charges starting to become prevalent, it wasn’t long before Michael Adams ducked a tackle and passed it to Josh Holmes for the rays to get back in front. Harry Jones conversion saw the rays out in front by 6 heading into the final 20 minutes of the game. The last quarter saw a series of handling errors and rushing from the rays give the Stars firstly an unconverted try followed by a penalty putting them in front, this was then shadowed by a final penalty try caused by a collapsed scrum taking the game to its final score of 49-40. The Stars historic first win.
[one_third last=”no”]
The Game Changer
Obviously the own try from Mitch Lewis and the TMO was the biggest talking point for this game, a major point in examining how uniforms are dealt with in the NRC
[/one_third]
[one_third last=”no”]
The G&GR MOTM
Jake Gordon gained two tries and played well for his time directing them well and working off a dominant scrum.
[/one_third]
[one_third last=”yes”]
Players to watch
Kotani Ale is a crowd favourite, Nick Fraser played well even with his own try out front.
[/one_third]
The Details
Crowd: small
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]Sydney Stars: 49
Tries: 7 (Tipiloma Kaveinga, Jake Wainwright, James Willan, Jake Gordon x2, Michael Hodge, Penalty Try)
Conversions: 4 (Angus Roberts x3, Jack Macklin x1)
Penalties: 1 (Jack Macklin)[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]North Harbour Rays: 40
Tries: 5 (Kotani Ale, Dave Feltscheer, Jack Dempsey, Josh Holmes)
Conversions: 5 (Hamish Angus x4, Harry Jones x1)
Penalties: 0 [/one_half]
Cards & citings
None
