The NSW GPS competiton
The seventh of the ten rounds of the GPS competition was completed on Saturday and it looks like the Scots juggernaut will not be stopped this season.
Newington shared the trophy with Scots last year but their 150th anniversary was in 2013; so it follows that their 1st XV is not so stellar in 2014.
There is a lot of loose talk about the provenance of the Scots’ team which thrashed Newington 101-0 a few weeks ago and I would rather leave that to others but they are certainly well-coached and are a pleasure to watch on the field.
They have some cracking players and I thought they were under-represented at the Australian Schools Championships.
In their seven games Scots have had an average scoreline of 61-13 and on the weekend they won 71-13 at Kings despite being down to 14 men in the second half.
Kings are doing it tough in recent times and they will be looking to avoid the wooden spoon in their last three games.
Riverview have lost only one game (to Scots) and they could be a chance to share the competition if they beat Scots in the last match. There are no bonus points in the tournament and for and against doesn’t count either.
View beat Newington 33-22 on Saturday helped by Australian Schools’ wunderkind outside centre, Henry Hutchison, scoring three tries.
The improving Shore team was triumphant when they beat Kings for the first time in 19 years a couple of weeks ago and they went so close to beating Joeys on Saturday.
Nobody comes close to Joeys in overall results and they frequently win 85-90% of all their games on weekends but the playing field in the 1st XV is no longer level. Their historical dominance has gone forever in the 1st XV arms race that pervades the GPS.
It was a herculean game from the boys from both teams when Joeys visited Shore, and the home team was distraught when Joeys tied the game up with a try the death.
The conversion looked a reasonable proposition but just before the Joeys’ goal-kicker set the ball up the rain started bucketing down and all the outside spectators ran to get into the Hawker Stand.
Anyway, the Joeys’ lad lined up the conversion in a downpour and he missed. It was as though Huey from on high pointed the forefinger down, deeming that neither team should lose that game, and sent down sheets of rain.
I think Huey got it right.
