Waratah Shield Semi-Finals

St Augustines 69 — Marist College 12

Scoring was brisk at the start and unconverted tries were swapped in the first six minutes. Auggies’ No.8, James Lough scored first after pressure from the opening kick-off, then Marist fullback, Tom Evans went over after being set up by brilliant work from his inside centre.

Later Auggies’ 13. Jake Ibbotson cheekily stepped inside to dot down; so after only nine minutes three tries had been scored and St. Augustines led 12-5.

Then the teams swapped tries—the Auggies 12. James Parker benefited from a good run by 14. Grant McDonald to score , and Josh Thompson of Marist went over after some switches of play.

The game looked fairly even with St. Augustines ahead 19-12 and that was the score until about five minutes before oranges.

But St. Augustines put their mark on the game with two quick tries before the break. McDonald scored a try after some razzle-dazzle passing, and rampaging reserve backrower Siaosi Halaifonua knocked a couple of Marist lads over for five points.

At half-time St. Augustines led by 33-12 and were looking ominous.

The break came a little late for Marist as they looked tired at the break.

It didn’t get any easier in the second half as Auggies scored three tries in seven minutes—one from a scrum set-piece, another by a reserve prop backing up a backline move and the third to McDonald again after receiving a pass from 15. Hayden Cochrane.

In less than 15 minutes of play either side of the break, Auggies had scored 21 unanswered points and led 50-12.

There was a window of twelve minutes when Marist dug in and no tries were scored but after that Auggies scored scored three tries in eight minutes and ended up winning 69-12.

The teams

In the final St. Augustines will have to cut out some of the semi-final razzle-dazzle passing and loose play, but despite those blemishes they were too strong in most aspects of play, including at scrum time. They played a high tempo game for long periods and some of their reserves looked almost as effective as their starting players.

Their cadre of young forwards look especially promising and no doubt they will have greater impact in 2014.

Marist run out of steam just before half-time and despite a 12-minute period in the second half when the were able to stop the carnage, a thrashing always looked likely.

They lads from the ACT fought bravely and who knows what the score would have been if St. Augustines had to travel three hours in a bus to Canberra for the game, instead of vice-versa.

The players

Marist – It was difficult to assess their players especially after the first quarter of the game, because they were all busy putting out fires. That said, Tom Evans, Dean Paragali and Josh Thompson were three of their best.

St. Augustines had more players that stood out as is always the case when teams get good front-foot ball from their forwards.

Flyhalf Matt Arnold was the ringmaster and fullback Hayden Cochrane his skilful apprentice. Winger Grant McDonald was hard to stop most times that he had the ball.

In the forwards, lock Elia Fa’atui and flanker Jack Donlon bent the line all day, but they weren’t the only ones.

[one_half last=”no”]Scoring details

St. Augustines College — 69 [11 tries; 7 conversions]

Marist College — 12 [2 tries; 1 conversion][/one_half]

[one_half last=”yes”]