The palm trees were swaying, the planes overhead were flying sideways coming in to land at Mascot, and a dark pall hungover Johnson Oval, with Newington not taking any of the games from 10 o’clock onwards.
Could this be the days of upsets? No.
It was a dire, dark, mistake-riddled game that tend to happen in 80 knot winds. I saw kicks blown dead from within the 22 all day towards Stanmore Rd, and penalty kicks missing touch repeatedly. ( I have never seen so many fixies and skinny jeans in one place in my life.)
As the players took the field the game had an air of brooding dislike about it.
Newington were bigger man for man and the New front row was huge Big men win you these games and whilst I saw no real standouts both packs hunted as exactly that: packs.
New won the toss when the wind coming off the Antarctic was only strong, and elected to run against it. After what was the beginning of cynical penalties from Newington, Kay slotted a penalty, 0-3. He repeated that in the 16th minute when 2. Tevita Vea left his feet – another 3 pointer, 0-6
What started then was the scrappiest 20 minutes of footy I have seen for many a year as both sets of backs tried things. Due to the wind picking up even more nothing went to hand. All of sudden though Robertson burst through, did a flick pass that any fly half would be proud of to hooker Carolan who showed toe before handing unselfishly to Wilde, who was able to score in a better position. The conversion made the score 0-13. It looked easy.
Both sets of piggies seemed to take great delight in big hits and a bit of ugly stuff. Right on the shadows of half time Vlahos flew onto a Milne SBW pass and scored in the corner. Great try, and New had a sniff! Soon after Tepai Moeroa got over the line but Alex Newsome and Sam Barclay attached themselves and there was no way the big man could get the ball down.
Half time 5-13
The ref chastised Joey Lussick for taking so long to take his kicks for Newington in the first half (7 minutes all up) but they sped things up in the 2nd with the wind at their backs. Fullback Hood ran through several Joeys’ defenders is his own 22 and kicked the pill 50 metres towards the far corner. Alex Vlahos, who seems to have put on a couple of yards pace since last year, ran onto the ball, nudged it over the try line with his legs and scored. Great footy, but probably a little against the run of play at the time.
Then in the 15th minute Joeys were cynical on the ground and Lussick kicked the goal for New to take the lead for the first time, 15-13, and they were never headed from here. No 8 Lachlan Cannell picked up the ball from a Joeys scrum and scored a try almost unopposed. Then, near the end of the game and deep in SJC territory, a Newington lock secured the ball at the lineout, transferred it to 7. Morris who switched it to hooker Vea, who went over. Lussick crafted a brilliant conversion from near touch, which rode the wind, and the game ended soon after at 29 -13.
It was a shame to see nigh on 70 minutes of willing rugby spoiling what should have been a showcase event. However Newington deserved their win after coming back after a poor first quarter and using the wind better for the remainder of the match. Joeys kicked the ball dead too many times, even from their own quarter, and missed several penalty kicks for touch grabbed by the wind. They also missed too many tackles.
The forwards cancelled each other out with Ben Chahoud 6 and Lachlan Cannell 8 being the pick of Newington’s young team. The halfback Latunipulu and 14. Vlahov were the best from the double digit lads, but big boppers 13. Moeroa and 11. Milne were constant threats.
For Saint Josephs 1. Robertson, 2. Carolan and 6. Goldie, whilst he was out there, were great, but windy rugby was a blight, not only on the jumpers in the lineout of which Bartlett got more than his share of attention, but on the backs as well. Cut out passes in cyclonic winds were a lottery at best, as both sides found out. It was just that Newington played the conditions better.
One thing that was a really nice touch from the Newington First XV was, after the shaking of hands and the grabbing of drinks, they went down and gave a rousing 3 cheers to the SJC schoolboys, some of whom had been there in Arctic conditions since 8 am. Nice.
When Newington play Scots.. I know who I’m backing.
In the 2s a gutsy game hard fought all the way with 8. Daniel Hughes crashing over to seal a win 15-13 .
Newington College – 29 – Tries: A. Vlahos (2), L. Cannell, T. Vea. Conversions: J. Lussick (3). Penalty: Lussick.
St. Joseph’s College – 13 – Try: J. Wilde. Conversion: J. Kay. Penalties: Kay (2).
Photos care of Lee Grant
