Nudgee College at Brisbane Grammar (55-14)
The sage
“Failure to ignite” is one way to describe the BGS performance against Nudgee in the 55-14 romp at Northgate.
From the kick-off the Nudgee “machine” were able to bulldoze their way forward. Most times Grammar had the ball they usually failed to cross the gain line due to lack of direction and NC’s defence. They were scappy and disorganised in the backs.
This lead to plethora of tries for NC in the first half, seven in all, which made it look like a training run for the butcher stripes: two a piece for #8 Hewat #11 Armstrong and #15 Tupou and a single for #13 Richman. I was particularly impressed with the #15 and #11 as they seemed to have the ball on a sting and with their light feet and pace and showed up Grammar for their lack of understanding on how to tackle a man with the ball.
Even when NC showed some signs of sloppy moments inside their 22m, on a rare (two) occasions Grammar had the ball there, the last line of defence (#7 Zappala and #11 Armstrong) were there to deny them. It wasn’t until the 38th minute and after a series of 4-5 penalties (and a yellow card to #6 Ireland) that grammar were able to cross the line through some dogged pick n drive. A well deserved try given that they controlled the ball for some 6 minutes inside the red zone. On the other side of the coin it was a pleasing defensive effort for Nudgee as they defended there line for that time.
HT 41-7
After dining on a sumptuous try fest in the first half, Nudgee supporters were looking forward to the second half. The half started with a mistake from NC (kick-off out on the full) and this set the tone (as it often does in rugby) for the half. The smorgasbord of tries reignited however a short time later with a penalty to NC an easy lineout win and #3 Gavin Luka “strolling” 20m over to cross under the posts and almost untouched. The second half found Luka making some hard runs and some damaging tackles.
The game then went into a holding pattern for about 10 minutes as it was mainly played between the 22m lines. No team could take the advantage of the ball they had with NC momentum stifled by penalties and Grammar rarely making it across the vantage line or making elementary handling errors. It wasn’t until 18 minutes in that a charge down by NC lead to their final try of the afternoon. The final 7 minutes were spent inside the NC 22m with BGS scoring a try very reminiscent of the first half.
The lineout were easily dominated by NC with #7 Zappala and #8 Hewat taking 2 against the throw jumps each. The scrums were dominated by NC as well. The battle of the breakdown was won by BGS with #8 McReight taking that battle. McReight had a cracker of a game with good tackling and some strong runs and can hold his head up high in a dominated forward back.
Man of the match was, and I had 5 to chose from (NC #3 Luka #8 Hewat, #11 Armstrong & #15 Tupou and BGS #8 McReight) and I think I would just lean towards Hewat. Again he lead from the front, ran hard, tackle well and just had an all-round good performance.
Notables:
NC: #2 Schoupp, #3 Luka, #5 Verryne, #7 Zappala, #8 Hewat, #11 Armstrong & #15 Tupou
TGS: #6 Ebzery, #8 McReight and possibly #9 Halliday
