Newington 48 — Shore 3
by “George Smith”
Amongst the ‘Back to New” stalls many of the punters were tipping a 100+ score today against the hapless Shore team. Newington’s premiership team were focused on ensuring there wasn’t a ‘scare’ like they received in the final game last year when Shore took them to the wire.
The Scoring
Newington came out of the blocks firing. From the kick-off they bustled Shore to get a turnover and then quickly went right, and back left, for Simon Kennewell (#11) to score out wide. New observed with glee that Shore needed to commit at least two to every tackl,e which gave them overlaps out wide.
This was exploited superbly a few minutes later allowing Taane Milne (#15) a pie, also in the left corner. The New boys were on a roll and clearly excited for the next 60 minutes.
The program (the print run of which went only to those lingering before 11am) listed four last-minute changes for Shore. Replacement winger Nick Schnitzer (#11), hesitantly fronted up against his experienced and big opposite, Sepesa Logo-Tarogi, to make two brave try-saving tackles. This gave the diminutive Shore team heart and they rallied to thwart New for a while.
But gaps were opened up and the size and speed of Newington was hard to repress. Two excellent tries were scored under the posts by Lachlan Anderson (#10) and then Kennewell (#11) for his second.
Newington were on a march, or so they thought, but Shore hadn’t rolled over: as they showed all season they were a team that never ‘gave up’. And they had the assistance of a resolute referee who pinged New left, right and centre.
At first, Newington gave away free-kicks for early pushing but more interestingly they were being pinged around the tackle and breakdown. Most referees get tired and give their whistle a rest after a while, but not today. The big New boys were not ‘releasing the player’ and not coming ‘through the gate’ at the tackle.
These errors also triggered the frustrations and nervousnes of the home team, which translated into unwarranted backchat that was quickly dealt with by the referee. Firstly they were penalised, and then the referee played cards. The game then went into a sea-saw stanza where the play stayed between the 22s.
Just prior to the break Sepesa Logo-Tarogi showed his pace and skill in beating three defenders with deft changes in direction to a score a lovely solo try to take the score to 31-3.
Whilst the players were having their oranges the crowd were entertained. Newington had put on a re-enactment of a 19th Century rugby game during half-time of the Bledisloe Cup in Sydney(see picture) and also played AFL in front of a big crowd. For this match they put on a demonstration of footy by some very small folk to a very much smaller crowd.
Someone should have recorded what the Shore coach said at half-time. The lads from north-side came out and put it to New. For a team that had had looked like an U15 team playing an Opens team, they put on an exhibition that showed that their hearts as big as the mighty Phar Lap. As one Newington father said after the game:
“Shore really showed their true spirit to everyone today, it was an amazing demonstration of courage and tenacity”.
Newington were pinned in their own red zone defending grimly for the next 25 minutes. Although down by 28 points Shore refused to take any shots for goal; instead they opted for the hardest choice: a scrum – even though they were giving away 15kg to a man.
They tried crash balls, they tried pick & drives, and they tried sliding runs to get through without avail. The Newington boys kept repelling everything to the chant of “no tries to Shore today”.
With the clock showing 4.34 the New boys got some relief which they quickly pounced on to get out of their 22. The clock then was showing 4.42 and the visitors suddenly realized this was the actual time and not the duration of the game. New scored three quick tries to Anderson (#10), Milne (#15) and flanker Lee to take the score to its conclusion.
After the ref twigged what the scoreboard clock was showing he called full-time after the longest second half in history and the light fading fast.
The players
Newington
3 – Lachie Cannell – #8 (captain of the Premiership team)
2 – Anthony Vasilis – #5 (for contesting very breakdown)
1 – Taane Milne – #15 (was always dangerous at the back)
Shore
The whole team stood up and showed their courage and commitment even though only one member played all 70 minutes of every game this year!
Wrap-up
This was a game where Newington had to protect its Premiership against a team who hadn’t won a game all season yet threatened in many of them.
The Newington team gave a superb exhibition of speed and precision in 20 minutes of the game – scoring three tries in the first ten minutes and three tries in the last ten minutes.
In between these two ten minute periods Shore dominated territory and possession but, in the end, their lack of size couldn’t get them over the line.
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Scoring details
Newington — 48
Tries: L. Anderson (2), T. Milne (2); S. Kennewell (2),S. Loga-Tarogi, T. Lee.
Conversions: J. Lussick (4)
Shore — 3
Penalty Goal : J. Clancy[/one_half]
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Click on arrow for match report of Riverview v King’s by Chris Ng, on Page 3
